The Lion and the Unicorn
by starlingnight
Summary: When Oz and Alice accidentally set a malevolent Chain free, that's only the start of their problems. On the run from Pandora, can they hunt down the Chain, team up with one of their worst enemies and face their own inner demons? Animeverse AU.
1. open the door

**CHAPTER ONE**

The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown

The lion beat the unicorn all round the town

Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown

Some gave them plum cake and drummed them out of town.

"_BREAK! Tell us NOW – or I'll – I'll!"_

"_Ha, ha. Easy there, little rabbit."_

_Oz sighed, and grabbed a bit of cake. It was one of those afternoons in Pandora headquarters – stuck in a small room with nothing to do but eat and listen to Break's rambling and Alice and Gil arguing. Oh, and stop your cake from being stolen, though he never had much success with that._

_Gil was out at some kind of meeting. That left only Break for Alice to argue with. She was certainly giving it her best shot. _

Clack-clack. Clack-clack. Cell 21810. Cell 21811.

"Alice," Oz whispered, "I think we're getting close…"

"_You don't need to be quite so emphatic, you know." Break stabbed the small dessert fork into a piece of plum cake and lifted it, twirling it idly. "I was just winding you up, after all."_

"_YOU-!"_

Alice's boots made a nice, smart clacking noise against the tiles. It was conspicuously loud in the sterile silence. Clack-clack.

"_Calm down, Alice…" Oz snatched the plate of cakes away from Break and shoved it back into Alice's hands. She brightened up instantly. "So, you're going to tell us what you were talking about?"_

"_Of course. It's just that I've been thinking about …something, lately." Break plunged his fork into a croissant on Alice's plate. "After all…that something is wearing away at the seal that Pandora placed on it. Quite a serious issue, as a matter of fact…"_

"_Get on with it!"_

"Are you sure we should be down here?" Oz asked her. She was staring straight ahead, with a don't-mess-with-me-or-else expression on her face. Hopefully it was supposed to be directed at their quarry, and not him.

"Silence, manservant! We need to concentrate on finding the correct cell!" The clack-clacking sound grew louder. Alice must be getting mad.

"_I'm talking about a Chain. A very special, extremely powerful kind of Chain." He paused for dramatic effect. "Have you ever heard of… the Dark Unicorn?"_

_Silence. _

"_Um, do you mean Sharon's Eques?" Oz offered up. Sharon's Chain was dark and a unicorn, after all._

"What, can't you count? It's not that hard. See, 21813, 21814…we're looking for 21820. We just have to keep walking."

_Break chuckled. "Well…yes, but not exactly. Let's put it this way; Eques' power pales in comparison to the Dark Unicorn. The Unicorn would barely deign to fight it. The Unicorn is older, stronger and much less friendly. And guess what?"_

_They leaned forward, entranced._

"S-Silence, I said! Of course I can count properly…but you have to do it for me because you are my servant, and, uh, I'm worried you might do it wrong. Ha!"

Oz smiled and shook his head.

"_We're keeping it prisoner!" He giggled, in a not-at-all-insane manner._

"_Whoa!" Oz's eyes were shining. _

"_We had to imprison it, of course. The Unicorn's unique powers…well, to put it simply, it's much to dangerous for us to let it roam free."_

Most of the cells were empty. In these corridors, Pandora imprisoned and categorised Chains. This far, into the 21000's, only the most dangerous Chains were kept.

Oz and Alice had been walking for a long time.

"_It hunts down illegal contractees."_

_Oz's eyes widened. _

"_What, like…" Alice shot a glance at him._

"_That's right! It seems that it can sense anyone who has illegally made a contract with a Chain. And once it finds them…" He sucked on the fork nonchalantly. "Then, well, they get a surprise." Oz gritted his teeth at the high pitched giggle that followed._

"_Well, who's its contractor?" Alice asked._

"_The Unicorn has no contractor." Break leaned forward, narrowing his eye menacingly. "It can travel between the Abyss and the real world at will."_

"If Pandora are too chicken to kill this thing," Alice said determinedly, "then we've got to do it. Break said that the seal on the Dark Unicorn's cell is weakening. We'll be –"

"—in really big trouble once this gets out," Oz finished.

"Then why don't you turn back?" She flicked her mane of hair to one side and looked at him.

"Well, if we get in trouble, I'll just have to accept it, won't I?" Oz smiled. "And I couldn't leave you all alone down here, right?" He tugged one of the braids on the side of her head gently.

"What do you mean by that? It's not like I'd get lonely! I'm a Chain! You try spending years of your life down in Ab-"

She realised that she was blushing. Oz was now absently twirling one of her braids around his finger.

Clack-clack-clack-clack. She had pulled free and was now trotting ahead of him, shoulders hunched, fists clenched. What had he done this time? He shook his head. Alice.

"_So why doesn't someone make a contract with it?" Alice wanted to know. "Cause if they did, then they could help us hunt down escape Chains, and we wouldn't have to waste so much _time_ – "_

"_No," Break said._

"_What?"_

"_Never. Silly rabbit, the seal on its prison is weakening, and that's not a good thing." He turned his head to one side, one hand propping up his chin._

"_Why?"_

"_Because it creates more problems than it solves. Literally." He stood rapidly, snatched the cakes off a protesting Alice, and stalked over to the balcony, where Sharon sat drinking tea. Oz and Alice stared, dumbfounded, for a while, until Alice turned to Oz with a speculative gleam in her eye. _

"_Hey, Oz…"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Why don't we…"_

_He would come to regret agreeing to this later. He would regret it very much indeed._

21818. 21819. 21820. 21821 –

"Alice!" he shouted. "Hey, come back here! We passed it!"

Blushing furiously, she returned to find Oz looking at cell 21820. It was a very large, imposing door, made of metal, and devoid of any bolts or locks. Its number was written on it in large, ornate white letters.

"I suppose this cell must prevent it from returning to Abyss," he said aloud. "It must be pretty bored."

Alice was frowning.

"Uh…so, how do we kill it?" Oz asked, poking her in the shoulder.

"There should be a lever on the door…or something?" Alice said haltingly. "Uh…"

"You didn't think this through at all, did you?"

"That was supposed to be YOUR job!"

"Fine, fine…" He trod closer to the cell. His boots made dull thudding noises against the floor.

"Go on," Alice urged.

He looked the door up and down. It was made of a kind of shiny dark wood. The white numbering glowed faintly in the dim light.

He laid his palms flat against the door, and pressed his ear to the surface.

_Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump._

"Oz?"

"Shh," he hissed.

"What –"

"I said shh!"

Silence.

"Why?"

"I can hear it," Oz said distantly. "I can hear it breathing."

"Oz –"

He pressed closer to the door, entranced. "I can hear its _heartbeat –"_

"OZ! The door, it's unlocking!"

His eyes snapped open, and he jerked away. Lines of bright blue light were spidering across the door, constructing a design that looked like –

"The tattoo of an illegal contractee," Alice whispered. "The seal that Pandora placed on the cell…"

The lights in the corridor snapped out, leaving them in darkness only illuminated by the giant, spiky seal searing its way into the door of cell 21820. Oz backed away.

He never got afraid. He chose not to fear. Ever. Just to accept what came to him. _Just let it all wash over you._ If you live, you live. If you die, you die. He was nothing and he shouldn't give himself value above his true worth. Never ever.

But _right here right now_ his heart was beating wildly in his chest and his palms were sweating and his breathing was quick and raspy and right now it was fair to admit that he was absolutely _terrified. _The tattoo on his chest was glowing and pulsing and sending jerks of short, piercing pain through him, and he wanted more than anything to be _out of here –_

"Oz, I think we forgot something very important," Alice said, as the door began to swing open. She licked her lips.

"Oh, yeah?" he managed.

"Nothing," she said. "Just… that this thing hunts illegal contractees. That's not good. At all."

"You think?" he snarled, as the door banged open against the wall, and Dark Unicorn stepped out of the inky blackness of its prison.

It looked like a fairytale unicorn that had been taken from a storybook and warped and twisted until it was barely recognisable. It grinned at them with a long, distended mouth, sloppily stitched shut, and stared at them with gaping, empty eye sockets. Its ribs stuck out of its sides, as if it was starving. Its viciously sharp talons clacked against the floor.

Like Alice's boots. Clack-clack.

ILLEGAL CONTRACTOR… YOU HAVE RELEASED ME. I THANK YOU. The Unicorn grinned its horrible, fixed grin. DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS NEXT? It tilted its head. I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS…

It lowered its horn. A crackling, hissing bolt of purple energy shot from its tip, and struck Oz square in the chest, directly on his tattoo. He convulsed, eyes rolling back in his head, and screamed and screamed and screamed -

Alice shouldered in front of Oz, hands half spread as if to shield him, raised her chin, and glared at the Unicorn, violet eyes blazing.

"_If _I may address you, Dark Unicorn," she hissed, "do you know who I am?"

It peered down at her with empty, soulless eyes. I CAN SEE THAT YOU ARE A CHAIN.

"That's right. _Who?"_

YOU HAVE STRENGTH. QUITE A BIT OF IT.

"Say my NAME!"

I DON'T WISH TO OBLIGE.

"Well, no, you couldn't have known it, I'll grant you that," Alice said sweetly, words dripping with honeyed menace. "Not while you've been locked away in there…"

IT MATTERS NOT... YOU CANNOT STOP ME. I WILL BEGIN THE HUNT, FOR ALL THOSE WHO WOULD MAKE A CONTRACT WITH A CHAIN, AND I WILL SPREAD THE CHAOS… It seemed to laugh. It was a choking, shrieking, awful sound. SUCH BEAUTIFUL CHAOS.

"You don't know my name, then? Hmph." Alice grinned a merciless, humourless , pitiless grin. "Well, then. I _see_. I'll have to tell you."

The Unicorn stepped forward on emaciated legs.

"I am the Bloodstained Black Rabbit," said Alice, "and this is _my_ property."

Summoning all the strength she had, she caused her scythe to materialise in one hand. Grabbing a shaking Oz by the collar, she slashed the floor. The blade carved through it like butter - once, twice, three times –the Unicorn lunged –

-and the floor collapsed. Alice fell, dragging Oz with her. Her scythe dissipated, and she gave the Unicorn an insolent wave.

For Oz, lost in a writhing sea of pain that he could not escape, it didn't feel like falling. It felt like flying.

xxx

_Yeah, I know that the positions of 'lion character' and 'unicorn character' in Pandora Hearts are already taken, by Leon and Eques. I've been planning this story for some time, so this has been taken into account. Leon and Eques _will _play big parts in the story, as will the Dark Unicorn and the missing Other Lion. Watch this space!_

_I'm planning to update this story weekly, if time allows._

_Review! Yes, I'm talking to you! It really keeps an author's spirits up, you know? It's the nicest thing you could do for me. Please, review. :)_

_Hope you enjoy the story!_


	2. watch the clock

**CHAPTER TWO**

They hit the ground _hard_.

Oz slammed down chest first, but Alice managed to land on her feet. The impact sent painful shocks through her legs. She stumbled slightly, but she shook it off and looked up, through the hole in the ceiling that they had just fallen through.

The Unicorn grinned back down at her from above. She swallowed nervously. If it came down after them, she'd have to think fast. No. Scratch that. She had to think fast _now._

ANOTHER TIME, THEN, BLOODSTAINED BLACK RABBIT. The Unicorn tossed its mane. I HAVE GRANTED YOU A WONDERFUL GIFT. YOU SHOULD THANK ME.

Oz groaned, twisting and clutching his tattoo.

GRATEFUL, I SEE.

Alice bared her teeth."What do you know about me, you stupid –"

It inclined its skeletal head. GOOD NIGHT.

"-donkey -" Alice called out angrily – but purple light had begun to gather around the Unicorn. It was entering Abyss.

"And don't come back!" she shouted after it, then sighed. The Dark Unicorn, huh. Pretty ominous name. It had _better_ never come back…

The alarm was already sounding. She fell to her knees. Oz's screaming had subsided, and now he was simply giving low whimpers, sounding for all the world like an animal in pain. She smoothed back his hair, and he calmed somewhat.

With a sense of dread, accompanied by morbid curiosity, she reached for his shirt and pulled it back so that his tattoo was visible.

The hand on the clock had moved.

Alice bit her lip. Not good. Not good at all. Was this what the Unicorn did to contractors, then? Make their clocks, well, tick? But, no…that didn't seem to fit what Break and the Unicorn itself had said…

She looked at the tattoo closer. And then it struck her that the design around the outside had changed. A little spikier here, a little smoother there – and it was coloured a dark red, instead of black.

Oz coughed. She realised that he had fallen silent. "What happened? What is it?" he rasped.

"Your tattoo," Alice said bluntly. "The clock hand turned. And it's different now...must be because of the Unicorn's attack." She frowned. She was really not getting a good feeling from this. Tugging up his shirt again, she tried to shake off the dark sense of apprehension hanging over her.

"You! You're with Master Break, right? What are you doing down here?"

She turned her head groggily. Summoning the scythe had taken a lot out of her. "What? What is it? Stop asking me pointless questions, you i-insolent…" A yawn cut her off mid sentence.

A large team of Pandora agents was rushing down both sides of the hallway. She attempted to stand, but fell back on her knees.

"What are you doing?"

"There's an escaped Chain, kids, you shouldn't be down here! It's dangerous!"

The babble was getting louder. Some of the agents were rushing upstairs to check out cell 21820.

"Are you two alright?" A female agent rushed forward and helped her get to her feet. "What happened?"

"I… " she tried to say, but it was getting increasingly hard to keep her eyes open.

"It's OK," the agent soothed. "We'll have you up to your room in just a second. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Oz…"

"Oz? Who's that? Can you tell me?"

Oz wisely chose to stay silent at that point.

"He…"

She swayed, wobbled. Hands. Supporting her. What was going on? How…

"Oz," she said again, trying to keep her eyes –

The agent sighed. It would be cruel to wake the girl up, and besides, she would be too sleepy to answer any questions.

"Come on. Let's get her back to Master Break."

xxx

"LEON! Right there!" Lotti shrieked, but the Dark Unicorn easily dodged her lion Chain's flailing paws. "Just pin it and - "

She _hated_ to admit it, she really did, but the truth was, they were absolutely no match for this Chain. It was simply playing with them before it got bored and killed them. And judging by what she knew of this particular Chain, she _could not_ afford to let it get away.

Just ten minutes ago, it had simply appeared in the Baskerville mansion hall in a burst of purple-pink light. She had dredged everything she knew about this Chain up from her memory - and hadn't liked what she'd found at all.

The Dark Unicorn left chaos, anarchy, destruction in its wake, and that was something the Baskervilles _did not need_! _They_ were the chaos-bringers around here – they couldn't _afford_ some upstart Chain that was stronger than them ruining their plans…

"Just FINISH it!" she yelled in frustration. Why why _why_ was she practically the only one here at headquarters right now…

OF COURSE, the Unicorn said, and Lotti jerked. She hadn't heard it speak before –

And Leon roared in pain as he was pinned to the wall by a pair of shadowy claws.

"You _useless_…!" She sprinted towards the struggling Chains as fast as she could. The Unicorn turned and looked her in the eye.

I HATE LIONS.

Lotti shrieked, with rage and frustration and yet more rage. "Don't-"

The Unicorn looked her in the eye. She stopped in her tracks, halting mid sentence. The empty abyss, _yes_, abyss, of its eye – it seemed to go on forever – and forever – and forever – lonely and old and _not-quite-sane-_

"I know," she whispered. "You –"

_A young girl, reading a picture book – two children, twins -_

She reached out a trembling hand.

OH, DO YOU NOW.

The strange moment passed as quickly as it had come. Lotti frowned and shook it off.

Then the Unicorn released its hold on Leon, letting it fall to the ground. She relaxed slightly, trying to shake off the feeling of falling.

"Lotti!" It was one of her subordinates, his Chain bounding next to him. She sighed in relief. Backup FINALLY - even if it was only of a meagre sort…

I APOLOGISE, said the Unicorn to Lotti. I WILL NOT BE KILLING YOU TODAY.

She frowned. "Well…thank you - ?"

And then with lightning speed, it leaped. There was a flurry of gleaming black claws, a spurt of scarlet blood and purple light, and her 'backup' and his Chain were no longer alive. They were no longer even recognisable.

Lotti stepped over to examine them. Definitely no signs of life. She'd have to abandon this fight. No need to tell anyone about his death – they'd find out soon enough.

THERE ARE NO ILLEGAL CONTRACTORS HERE, I TAKE IT, the Unicorn said. It wasn't really a question.

"Not a one." She drew herself up, forcing herself to make eye contact again. "Dark Unicorn, I –"

GOOD NIGHT. I HAVE OTHER BUSINESS TO ATTEND TO.

Purple light spiralled up from the floor, enveloping the Unicorn. Lotti yelled out and stepped forward – and then it vanished, presumably off to do some contractor hunting.

Lotti growled, and punched the wall _hard. _It was a long scream, and a strong punch. She cursed, shaking her hand to alleviate the pain.

"This isn't good," Leon observed. He wasn't much of a talker.

"You think?" she scowled, rubbing her knuckles sullenly.

Well. The Dark Unicorn had been kept under Pandora's custody. That made it _Pandora's_ fault that it had escaped, which meant for once they only had Pandora to blame.

Lotti Baskerville smiled grimly. She would be paying Pandora a visit very shortly indeed.

xxx

"Aww, would ya lookit that!" Emily squawked. "Cute, huh?"

Break nodded absently. Oz and Alice had been laid out on the floor, lying on some rugs, but Alice had rolled over and appeared to be using her contractor as a pillow. Break hoped for Oz's sake that she didn't drool much in her sleep.

"But we have…hmm, let's say _serious _issues right now." He took a bite of cake, lost in thought. "There's no time to waste…"

He didn't often confide anything to anyone. His slip this afternoon had been a major one, when he had told Oz and Alice about the Dark Unicorn This just proved that it was always a bad idea to confide unnecessary details – look what they had gone and done now! The Unicorn was free…the Baskervilles wouldn't be happy about that at all, and now there were going to be huge messes to clean up wherever the thing went. He wasn't sure how they were going to confine it again, either.

Sharon was sipping tea outside on the balcony, looking up at the stars. She didn't appear to be very happy with him. He walked over and shut the blinds, not wishing to face her wrath.

He chanced another glance over at the sleeping pair on the floor. Oz was an illegal contractor too, of course. So unless they were very, very lucky –

He crossed the room in two long strides, and pushed Alice's head off Oz's chest. She muttered something and continued to snore. He took no notice of her. Her hair had covered up the crucial details –

The tattoo on Oz's chest was glowing, and had changed colour. It could be seen through his shirt and vest, and the needle was moving - slowly but steadily ticking towards midnight. It had reached 10 PM already. Two more spaces to go.

The Dark Unicorn had sped up Oz's clock tattoo. And when it reached midnight…

Filled with dread, Break sat back on his heels. Then he shook his head, stood up and left the room. This really was a serious situation. He had wasted too much time already.

_No way to halt the passage of the clock…_

Soon, very soon…it would happen. The change.

And from then on, there would be no going back.

xxx

_I think that this would be a good time to mention that I haven't read the manga for Pandora Hearts – I've only watched the anime. I am going to read it, but you should note that this story only takes events in the anime into account. If it happened in the manga but not in the anime, it won't be in the story. This story is set in 'anime canon'. Clear? Good :3_


	3. close your eyes

**CHAPTER THREE**

Sharon stood, attempting to school her face from a mask of shock into a sweet, polite expression, and placing her teacup carefully on the table. _A Baskerville. Comparing this one's appearance to the reports…it must be Lotti. _

The pink-haired Baskerville's face split into a wide grin as she jumped from the railing to land feet first on the small table. "Lady Sharon Rainsworth!" she said brightly. "It's good to see you!" Her lion-shaped Chain followed close behind, a deep growl rumbling in its throat.

Sharon gave a deep curtsy. "Greetings, Soul Reaper." As she straightened, she sent a silent call to Eques, trying desperately not to show her panic. _Please, come quickly! I need you!_

"Insincere as ever, Lady Rainsworth!" Lotti laughed. "Aren't you pleased to see me? But let's get down to business." She sat down on the edge of the table, crossing her legs and leaning forward. Sharon held her ground, though she was breathing fast and her heart was pounding.

"This organisation," she said sweetly, "is the custodian of a certain Chain, a very _dangerous _Chain. Am I right?"

Sharon nodded stiffly. "Correct." She noticed in a detached way that her hands were twisting the fabric of her dress. She made an effort to fold them neatly in front of her. She couldn't show any signs of fear. _EQUES! _

Lotti leaned closer, her smile dangerous now. "And that Chain has _escaped_. _Am I right?"_

"We are dealing with the situation presently!" Sharon snapped, backing towards the door. "You have no right to trespass on Pandora headquarters! Please leave immediately or I will have you – have you dealt with."

"Ah, but isn't it the noble duty of the Duke Houses to kill every Baskerville they meet?" Lotti asked mockingly. "I think it's simply that you'd rather leave the work up to your pet unicorn Chain, though it's no match for the _Dark _Unicorn! Can't you even use a knife?"

Sharon reached out to try the door, but found her hand blocked. The lion Chain was standing in the way, baring its formidable teeth. She snatched her hand back quickly, not wanting it to be bitten off.

"Don't even bother calling for Eques, girl," Lotti said conversationally, swinging her legs back and forth. "It is, shall we say, detained elsewhere."

Sharon gripped her dress hard, and opened her mouth to call for Break, or scream, or something – she should have done that ages ago – damned damned damned noble education, she didn't have any _use_ for being calm in the face of peril, she should have called for -

She peered at Lotti in confusion. "Excuse me -what are you doing?"

Lotti was rummaging around in her pockets. "Hang on – no – ahh, damn." She sighed. "You don't happen to have any pen or paper on you at all?"

"No, I'm sorry..." Then Sharon blinked. "Wait – _what?"_

"Ha ha! Shame." Lotti's grin grew wider. "I'll just have to improvise." She stood and leaned close to Sharon - _very _close. Sharon flattened herself against the wall, hand searching for the doorknob, a scream filling her throat.

"Maybe this will teach Pandora to be a bit more careful with their prisoners," Lotti hissed.

Sharon's hand grasped the knob -

- and Lotti flicked out a knife from her sleeve and stabbed her in the throat.

Sharon gave a little gasp, and tried to draw in air. Pain. Pain. Pain. "Y…you…" she tried to say.

She slid down the door. Farther. Farther.

_I…_

_She…_

_Why?_

_No. Don't let me…_

_Eques…_

_Alice…_

_Oz…_

Blood.

_Break…_

Quite a lot of it, in fact -

xxx

Leon looked at the girl contemplatively. He had seen plenty of corpses in his time. This one should be no different.

Plenty? Not the right word. Seen too many. _Too many_. Caused too many. _Far too many._ And the darkness had swallowed them all, in the end…even him…

So. The corpse was his. Would he rip it limb from limb…or bite her head off…or…

Wait. He looked at the girl again. Yes – that purple dress – he recognised it. A Rainsworth heirloom.

Was this girl a _Rainsworth? _He growled softly. In that case. He should show her some _respect_, perhaps. Respect for a worthy adversary – a relative, even.

He raised his paw, and hesitated. Then he lowered his head, and listened to the girl's chest. Lotti was still marking that piece of cloth with blood. She would not see.

He thought for a short moment. Then gently turned the girl over, unsheathed his claws and slashed her back twice, once on each shoulderblade. Blood blossomed from the cuts, soaking and trickling downwards.

Leon gave a satisfied grunt. That should prevent suspicion. He had done his part. Flapping his wings gently, he turned and leaped from the balcony. He would not tell his mistress that the girl's heart still beat in her chest. Some things she did not need to know.

xxx

Oz woke, clutching his chest with two hands. His breathing was laboured. Pain shot through him, piercing and relentless. _What on earth is going on? _

He opened his hands and chanced a glance downwards. Heart pounding, he let out a panicked cry.

The needle on his tattoo. It was pointing to eleven o'clock, and moving steadily closer to twelve.

How? How did this happen? Last time he'd checked, it had barely started its revolution. Mind racing, he thought back. They'd gone to find the Unicorn, and it had attacked him with energy that looked like it came from Abyss –

And all he remembered after that was pain.

He turned, wincing. Reaching out and grasping Alice by the shoulder, he tried to shake her awake. "A…Alice…" he choked.

She mumbled something and rolled over.

"Alice, wake _up_!" he shouted.

She sat up sleepily. "Wha..?"

"Wake up, I said!" He clutched the blazing, blood red tattoo with one hand. "Look, quickly!"

She jerked and stared. "It's moving…" she said, horrified. "So this…was the Unicorn's punishment…"

"What do we do?" said Oz urgently. "In a few minutes…"

"We'll both be dragged down to the deepest level of Abyss," Alice finished. She looked down, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"I don't want to go back there..." she muttered, almost too quiet to hear.

There was a pause.

"At least we'll have each other for company," Oz said brightly. Alice hit him hard on the arm.

"Don't do that," she snapped. "Don't keep on pretending you'll be _just fine._ We're going to _hell _in a few minutes and there's nothing we can DO!_" _She turned away, scowling.

Oz looked at the floor. "I know that."

"Hmph."

They sat there for a while.

"Hey, Alice?"

"What?"

"Reckon we'll ever see the sun again?"

"Shut _up. _You're not helping."

"Ha ha. No, I meant it. It's just…a shame that our last moments in this world had to be at night…"

Oz stared out at the moon for a while through the window.

"I'll miss the sun," he muttered.

"Me, too."

They huddled a little closer.

"I think Sharon's outside," Oz said. "Do you want to…"

"Say goodbye?" Alice finished.

"Yeah." Oz nodded. "I'd like to."

She stood, reaching out a hand. "C'mon, I'll help you get up…"

Oz didn't take it. He was frozen in place, shaking.

Alice dropped to her knees immediately. "At least we'll have each other, right?" she said desperately. "This had to happen…but it's h-happening to us t-together-"

She bit her lip. She was NOT going to cry–

-Oz howled, as the clock struck twelve. Purple light began to gather around them. Alice clutched his hands."Together," she sobbed.

The tattoo shone, and shone, and shone, surrounding them with radiance –

-And Oz began to rise slowly into the air. His eyes widened with shock.

Alice yelled out, panicked, and clutched his hands tighter, but as he was lifted higher, it seemed that the light pulled her forcefully back to the ground. "OZ!"

He tried to say something, but she couldn't hear him. And then she couldn't see him, either. His face was obscured by the light. She stepped back, shielding her eyes.

Oz was paralysed, frozen in place by the light. He couldn't see. Couldn't hear, couldn't feel anything but the light, all around—

— consuming him—

—burning him—

—eating at his flesh—

"ALICE!" he shouted. "ALICE!"

She couldn't hear him, he knew. He couldn't even hear himself. The light tore into him like fire. He couldn't see couldn't think couldn't breathe

until it stopped

and he felt

different.

xxx

_I love Sharon. She's not dead, promise._

_ keeps deleting my paragraph breaks! This is most displeasing! D:_

_Everything seems pretty black and white at the moment, but it won't stay that way. Things will, hopefully, be epic. I'm trying to make it so!_


	4. blame yourself

**CHAPTER FOUR**

The light dissipated, and Oz was most definitely _not_ lowered to the floor gently, accompanied by ethereal music. In fact, the fall was quick, painful and shocked all the breath out of him, leaving him gasping like a fish.

Alice was at his side in a flash. Kneeling, she grabbed his shoulders. "OZ! Oz! Are you OK?" she shouted, shaking him hard.

He had stopped gasping, and was now either breathing so faintly that she couldn't tell, or -

"If you're dead I'll _kill_ you!" She paused for a second to wonder how she would do that, then shrugged it off and continued to shake him. "We're not in Abyss! Oz, we're still here! Wake _up_!" She drew his thin form to her and clung to him. She could feel his breathing, his rapid heartbeat matching her own. He was alive.

She buried her face in his shoulder and pretended she wasn't crying.

"Don't wanna move," Oz's voice said sleepily. She jerked away and wiped her face on her sleeve, but he caught her arm and gently pulled her back.

After a while, she relaxed into the embrace.

She liked it when she could listen to Oz's heartbeat. It was soothing and calming, somehow, always slower than hers, even when he was scared or excited. Must be something to do with the difference between humans and Chains.

She leaned her head against Oz's chest, too tired to care. His hands drifted upwards, to bury themselves in her hair.

And then she jerked away again, eyes wide. "Oz," she said.

"Alice? What did I do this time?"

"Your heartbeat. It's too fast."

His brow furrowed. "Is it? Really? Well, I can promise I'm not taking drugs or any-"

She smacked him. "Of course it is! I can _tell_ these things!"

"Oh."

She crossed her arms, raising a hand to her chin. "That's really strange. It's quite different from normal."

"Crazy girl listens to my heartbeat regularly," Oz stage whispered.

"Shut up! Thinking!"

"Fine, fine…" He yawned and stretched his arms out. "Well, we're not in Abyss. Every day's a good day when you're not in Abyss. _I_ think we should go back to s–"

"Oz, no!" she snapped. "There's no time for sleep. This is really important!" Reaching out, she grabbed his chin and turned it in different directions. Hmm…he looked _mostly_ the same…

But. Right there… something about his appearance was different…something had changed…

"Hey, open your eyes really wide. Do it now."

He complied. (He always complied.) And…yes…

"Have the black bits in the middle of your eyes always been like that?" Alice asked him curiously. "I don't think they have been."

Oz looked at her curiously. "You mean the pupils? What have they been like?"

"Diamond shaped," she said.

"No, of course not!" he said, laughing. "Alice, people have _round_ _eyes_."

"You don't," she said. His laughter died away.

"You don't either," Oz admitted, frowning. "So, is that all the Unicorn did to me? Change my tattoo, my _eyes_, of all things, and give us a scare?"

"Idiot." She smacked him lightly. "It changed your heartbeat, too. That must mean it's changed things inside your body, too. What does that heart do, again?" She frowned, concentrating. "The heart…contains the feeling and emotion in the body…and it produces, um, yellow bile? What's bile, again? I forgot…"

Oz stared at her. Alice shrugged.

"I remember studying the processes of the human body once," she explained. "But I've lost my memories, so…"

"Plus, everything you just said about the heart is completely wrong," Oz said. "Science couldn't have been very advanced in the place you studied – OW!"

"Didn't you know that the heart pumps blood around the body?"

Alice's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"Yep. The faster you're going, the faster it has to pump the blood," Oz explained. "At least, that's what I remember from studying the sciences of the body ten years ago. So if it's increased my heartbeat...to the speed of yours, you said?" He frowned. "This doesn't make sense at all…you know, that kind of means I'm running at the same speed as a –"

"Chain," said Alice. She had sat bolt upright, her face deathly pale. "Oz. The same speed as a Chain."

"Yeah, I was about to say that." He peered at her curiously. "What about it?"

"Oz, use your BRAIN!"

"You're one to talk…"

"Shut up, manservant. The same speed as a _Chain."_

There was a slight pause.

"…Oh no."

"Oh, yeah."

"Right."

"Yep."

Silence.

"So that…"

"Yes, that means…"

Again, silence.

"It…" _No. No no no…WHAT._

"That's…That's not…"

"Oz, you're a _Chain!" _she yelled, getting to her feet and clenching her fists. "This is completely insane! SAY something, damn it! Freak out! Anything!"

He looked up blankly. Her face was wiped clean of anything but shock, and perhaps terror.

"Oz, it _turned you into a –"_

"We need to talk to Sharon," he said numbly. He would not think about it. He couldn't. _No_.

He stood and rushed for the door, not looking at Alice. She padded lightly behind him, and peeked under his arm as he turned the handle.

The door swung silently open.

Oz did not walk onto the balcony. Instead, he remained frozen in the doorway, limbs shaking slightly. Alice growled softly.

Blood was spattered everywhere. Red tinged the table, the chair, mingled with the fragments of china lying in the pool of bloodied tea. It dripped down the wall, richly coated Lotti's dagger, welled bright and scarlet in Sharon's pale throat. Blood trickled down her neck. It seeped into her hair, darkly stained her violet dress.

Her eyes were closed. She was collapsed on the floor, with her back against the wall. She wasn't breathing.

Lotti Baskerville was standing on the balcony with her back to them, next to her lion Chain. "Let's go, Leon," they heard her say. "C'mon." They jumped lightly off the balcony together, vanishing into the night.

Oz dropped to his knees immediately, picking Sharon up and cradling her gently. "Sharon! Sharon, are you awake? Can you hear me? SHARON!"

No response. He felt her wrists, chest and punctured throat, disregarding the blood that covered his hands, trying to find a pulse. There! The faintest, faintest heartbeat as it emptied blood from her body. He let out a breath. She was alive, though only just, and not for long if she didn't get help soon.

"Alice, help me get her inside," he said curtly. She nodded and took up Sharon's legs. Together, they carried her inside the room and onto the couch, then ripped the bottom of her dress into strips and wrapped it around her injuries to help stem the bleeding. Alice grabbed the emergency service bell and rang it loudly. Even though Pandora was probably on red alert because of the Unicorn's escape, that would bring someone running.

"Hey. Alice." Oz's voice was blank, empty of emotion.

"What is it?"

"Look at this."

She crouched next to him. He showed her a strip of Sharon's white petticoat. It had been snipped off neatly, not torn roughly. There was a message written on it in dark red letters.

PANDORA –

THE DARK UNICORN HAS ESCAPED.

WE ARE NOT PLEASED, AS YOU CAN SEE.

BLAME YOURSELVES FOR THIS.

-THE SOUL REAPERS

"Well…she's quite creative in her use of blood," Oz said.

"That…pink lady," Alice said. "That Baskerville. She…did this to Sharon."

"Lotti Baskerville," said Oz. His hands shook as he stuffed the stained cloth into his pocket. "And she's right. We can blame ourselves." He stood, bloodied fists clenched, eyes downcast. "It's our fault that the Dark Unicorn escaped. If we hadn't freed it, Sharon wouldn't have been attacked –"

"Don't talk like that. Don't you _dare," _Alice snapped, grabbing his arm. "Come on. Let's go."

He looked up, startled. "What? Where?"

"We're going after her," Alice said shortly. "We're going to find this Lotti. We're going to _catch_ her."

Oz nodded slowly. Alice grinned the dark grin of the Bloodstained Black Rabbit.

"And when we catch her…"

She took his hand, and pulled him towards the balcony. Towards Lotti.

"…we're going to _kill _her. Right, partner?"

Oz thought. Then…

"…I suppose. That sounds about right."

xxx

"Master Break. You must come quickly."

"Oh, must I?" Break glared at his subordinate through one blood-red eye. "Is it, oh, more important than this _investigation_ I'm currently directing, would you say?"

"I think you would judge it so, Master Break. It's Lady Sharon, Master-"

Break's mouth tightened. Pushing past the Pandora agents surrounding him, he caught up with the man. "My quarters, is it?"

"For the moment, Master Break – "

"Good. You take over here." He left the room, and broke into a run. This was most probably definitely not going to be good.

He was right, as it turned out.

Sharon was in too unstable a condition to be moved from the room, so they'd brought up the medical supplies and were treating her on the couch where she'd been left. She had been clumsily bandaged with her own dress, which was, of course, completely ruined.

She would have said that was a shame. It was a Rainsworth family heirloom, after all.

Not a muscle moved in Break's face. The gaggle of doctors surrounding her saluted him nervously , and continued to work, trying not to look at him.

He had been careless. So, so careless. He had left Oz and Alice just _lying _there, ready to transform at any time. _Idiot. More mistakes, killing people close to you. Must be getting old. Must be losing your touch._ "Losing your touch! Losing your touch!" Emily chattered.

And that was what the Dark Unicorn did. It sought out illegal contractees, and turned them into Chains. And that meant that you had two Chains in a contract together. Very few people knew that this could happen, which was a good thing, or they'd have Chains popping out of Abyss for a cup of tea left right and centre.

A long time ago, the Unicorn had been free, and destruction had reigned. It had had to be locked up. There had been no other choice.

Two contracted Chains meant power for those involved- _so_ much power. Unfortunately, it also meant _incredible_ instability. Chains who had made a contract together always went insane. The time it took varied. A day. A month. A year. Ten years. But it _always _happened, in the end…quickly or no…

He hadn't thought that it could be _this_ quick.

"Anything's possible," he said aloud. He stroked Sharon's forehead. This was all his fault.

He turned and left the room. Then he went to talk in private to Oscar Bezarius.

NOTICE OF ARREST WARRANT

TYPE; DANGEROUS CHAINS

READ CAREFULLY AND VOLUNTEER AT OWN RISK

_This notice is a warrant for the arrest of the two unstable and extremely dangerous Chains that go by the names of 'Oz' and 'B-Rabbit', thought to have between them caused severe harm to Lady Sharon of Rainsworth, a Senior Officer of Pandora. This is a top level case, though the Dark Unicorn case takes priority. Warning; They prefer to appear like humans, in the shape of a young boy with yellow hair and a young girl with brown. Approach with caution at all times. Wanted alive. Agents will be penalised for excesss harm done to said Chains._

He signed the notice, silently apologising to them both –

-_No_. Sharon was broken and bleeding. Sharon was fighting for her life. Everything he did, he did for himself…or her. He put her above them. Always.

He had no remorse left to spare for them.

xxx

"I preferred the coach," Oz grumbled.

"Oh, stop whining, slave."

"But I don't like this forest!"

"Neither do I! Suck it up!"

"But Aliiice – OW!"

"Branch in your face?"

"Yes. How'd you know?"

"Psychic."

"Uh huh. Sure you don't have a lamp anywhere?"

"If I did, I – " She stopped walking, standing completely still.

"What is -?"

"THERE!" she hissed, pointing. "Oz! Oz, did you see that?"

He looked closer.

There. A flash of pink. _Lotti._

Oz broke into a run.

xxx

_Me, I love my cliffhangers. They're wonderful, great, brilliant. I absolutely love writing them._

_Actually being on the receiving end of them, not so much. I know the feeling, trust me. I watched the Doctor Who episode 'The Pandorica Opens', and then waited a week for the next instalment. Trust me, that was the biggest cliffhanger IN THE HISTORY OF CLIFFHANGERS. The ones in this story are absolutely _puny _compared to the ones Doctor Who can throw up…_

_Anyway, what do you think of this chapter? Like the cliffhanger? What's the worst cliffhanger you've ever come across?_

_I'm in Queensland right now. Sunny and wonderful!~ It's so much better than Victoria which is SO COLD RIGHT NOW. Ahh, spring. _

_In advance, thanks for the review you're about to write me!_


	5. rattle the chains

**CHAPTER FIVE**

The Dark Unicorn had appeared in the capital with style. There had been much screaming and running around as it stormed about the place, setting fire to things, mauling people, chasing small dogs down the street, etcetera. But what it _really_ wanted to do was find illegal contractors.

They were like an itch under its skin, pulling at it, tugging at it, calling to it. It swished its tail like a horse trying to get rid of flies. Time to start hunting.

THANK YOU FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT, it told the screaming woman in front of it politely, and faded into the shadows. For some reason, humans could never see it when it simply concentrated on being unobtrusive, as if they didn't even _want_ to see it. Their eyes simply passed over it like it wasn't there.

Hmph. They were so unobservant.

The Unicorn left that street and crossed to a more peaceful one, which hadn't caught on to its arrival yet. As silently passed by one couple, they shuddered slightly, like they could sense something behind them, but then brushed it off and continued with their conversation.

"Did you hear? The Lady Sharon Rainsworth got attacked by a monster just last night!"

The Unicorn paused.

"What – Lady Sharon? Last night, really? Gee, news does travel quick…"

"_Yes_, the daughter of the Duchess. It's big news. The country's intelligence agency has made a public statement saying that the culprits look like a couple of kids."

"Thought you said it was a monster that did it?"

"I know, right? It's all over the place. Seems a bit bogus to me…"

_Duchess…Rainsworth…_

The Unicorn thought hard. It had heard those words before. The _Duchess_ of _Rainsworth_…It knew what those words meant. They meant something. Something important. It _knew those words…._

Well. Something to ponder on later, perhaps.

But for now, the hunt…

xxx

"This is all my fault!"

Gil's voice was anguished. "If I'd just _been_ here – If I hadn't –"

"Don't be an idiot, dear," Break said, cutting him off. "Not everyone is depending solely on _you." _He stared at Sharon's tiny form, lying limply in the bed. If she was awake, she would tell him off for being a hypocrite.

"Oz does," Gil snapped. "If I had been here, I could have stopped -"

"Ha. Ha ha ha."

"Hmph. Stop laughing." Gil took off his hat. "So…from what I've gathered…Oz and that stupid rabbit set a really, really dangerous Chain free. It turned Oz into a Chain, and then they all left headquarters. And somehow Sharon was injured…"

"Wrong! Guess again."

"But –"

"It turned Oz into a Chain," Break said, in a sing-song voice. "He couldn't control his new powers, and severely injured Sharon. Then he and B-Rabbit fled headquarters. We have deployed our secondary search teams. Together, Oz and Alice are possibly just as powerful as the Dark Unicorn itself, though less of a threat to national security." He lay back in his chair. "Do you know why the Unicorn, the beast itself, is so powerful? Why it's feared so much?"

"That doesn't –"

"It feeds on chaos, Sir Raven. Specifically…the emotions two contracted Chains cause in those around them. Terror. Anger. Pain. The chaos formed by their destruction. The joy the Chains take in it. It takes in those feelings and uses them to make it powerful…and it will never stop. It can only get stronger…and stronger...and stronger…"

"What does this have to do with –"

"Oz and B-Rabbit. _B-Rabbit. _What a lovely catch for the Unicorn. The more powerful, the better…and guess what that makes?" He stroked Emily's hair. "Yet another reason for us to…hunt them down."

Gil gripped his gun. "Break. Stopjoking around –"

Break turned his crimson eye on Gil. "Do you really think I am joking? Do I _sound_ like I'm joking?" He gave a smile that looked like it had started out intending to be pleasant and reassuring, but somehow hadn't achieved that goal. "I assure you, I'm perfectly serious…"

Gil clenched his teeth. "No. You can't-"

"Shut up." Break turned back to watching Sharon. Her breath raised and lowered her chest, so _so _faintly. "Gil, I cannot allow your silly, selfish belief in your Master Oz to endanger –"

"Oz would _not. _Break, I know for an _absolute_ _fact _that Oz would never harm–"

"Oz Bezarius, for all intents and purposes, is _dead_," Break yawned, eyes fixed straight ahead. "In his place is –guess what!- a _mad and dangerous Chain."_

"You don't –"

"Gil. He nearly killed Sharon." The words hung in the air like ice, and the temperature in the room seemed to drop below zero. Gil shivered.

"Break's going to break! Going to break! Break, break, break, break, break!" Emily sang. Break reached up and squeezed it until it shut up. Gil ignored the doll.

"He didn't _touch _Sharon-"

"_He is not Oz any longer. _I will not repeat that again."

Gil's fists clenched and unclenched. He knew that Oz was innocent, he _knew _it, but how could he make Break _see…_

"Oh! You don't believe me...but of course you don't, good servant that you are," Break mocked. "So, I'll give you a chance to see for yourself." He brushed a bit of dirt off Gil's shoulder, smiling playfully. "I'm placing you in charge of the search team for Oz and the rabbit. You'll be charged with capturing them and bringing them back here. We're devoting about one third of our resources to that. The other two thirds go to the Dark Unicorn." He sighed. "We're abandoning so many important operations because of this…"

Gil didn't reply.

"Hmm. I'd have thought you'd say yes instantly. After all, this will supply you with a third of Pandora's agents to work with, as well all of our resources, and official permission to track down and find Oz…"

"I'll do it," Gil said immediately.

"I'm glad you've come around," said Break.

He watched the black-haired man walk off. Maybe he had taken the wrong approach. But the risk that he was right about Oz and Alice was too great. He had been _right_ to simply tell Gil what he thought. And if he was wrong, well, it was all for the better that it was Gil searching for them…

He knelt by Sharon's bedside. She was so fragile, balancing between life and death.

"Keep breathing," he whispered.

And then he laughed at himself, because that was _such_ a sentimental, self-indulgent, dramatic thing to say. Wasn't this whole affair! And he laughed, and he laughed, and he laughed.

xxx

Oz could hear Alice's footsteps close behind him. She was running, too. He quickened his pace. He had seen Lotti, he knew he had. Where had she –

There. That way. He could hear the sound of arguing. Signalling to Alice, they turned that direction.

" –idiot. You didn't even consult with the rest of us before you decided to go and aggravate Pandora –"

"Look, they set the Unicorn free - they needed to be taught a lesson, can't you –"

"You _killed_ Sharon Rainsworth, Lotti. That is not going to 'teach Pandora a lesson', as you put it, all it's going to do is make them angry, take their attention off the Dark Unicorn's escape and put it back on us –"

Oz and Alice exchanged a glance. Obviously, they weren't expecting Sharon to survive. Should he have stayed instead? Was she still alive? Had Pandora found her?_ Should they have stayed?_

"Stop talking down to me. I _know_ that."

"Well, maybe you know it _now, _but I don't think you bothered to consider it at all before doing this!"

"I – I did what I had to do. That silly girl deserved what she got - the Master will back me, I know it!"

Oz's fists clenched. They were red and sticky, still coated in Sharon's blood. He had tried to save her. _He had done what he could._

" Lotti, that's enough. If our plans are compromised at _all _because of your stupidity, I'm taking this to the Master. I don't buy your bluff, he won't like this at all, and I can tell you the rest of us won't be happy –"

Alice appeared to be concentrating hard.

"What are you doing?" Oz asked her.

"Trying to summon my scythe!"

"Are you s –" He stopped dead mid sentence. Alice had vanished. In her place was B-Rabbit, clutching her huge scythe and crouching as low as possible to minimise their chance of being seen.

Oz's eyes were as round as saucers. "How did you _do _that?"

"I just tried to summon my power, and it wasn't sealed – so I just transformed!" She sounded as shocked as he was. "When you turned…uh, well, it must have unsealed my powers…hopefully without harming you."

"That's great! Let's go get Lotti!"

"Absolutely!" Her eyes shone. "Now, you should try!"

Silence.

"…Excuse me, what?"

"Try transforming." She shrugged. "You've never done it before, so it might be a little hard, but…"

"Alice."

"I thought we'd established this!" Her whisper was getting louder, but so was the arguing to their right.

"Established _what, _exactly?" Oz had poured all of his icy ducal politeness training into that sentence. Alice shivered, but persevered.

"You're a Chain now. We've already TALKED about –"

"Yes," he whispered, cutting her off. " I've been turned into a Chain." He stared into the distance, unconsciously wrapping his arms around himself.

"Well, yeah," she said defensively. "And that's not exactly a _bad_ thing, right? I mean, I'm a Chain, and I manage it –"

"Please be quiet."

Oz had never thought about his humanity before. It was just a fact about him. He took it for granted, he supposed. He was a human being. He had been born a human and would die a human. At least he had no objection to that…

But now his heartbeat was too fast, and his eyes were the wrong shape, and his tattoo was pointing to midnight and he wasn't in Abyss. He couldn't have suddenly changed _species, _could he? But a Chain wasn't even a species! Not according to his science textbooks at home, anyway.

He sat down on the ground, knees tucked to his chest, eyes glassy. He could accept injury. He could take being thrown into Abyss. He accepted death whenever it chose to come to him…

But his species, a core fact of his very _existence, _something that he had just known about himself all his life had suddenly changed, without warning, and now he wasn't even human_. _He was something else. Something that _wasn't human_, definitely not, and not an animal either.

He was a Chain, now. It seemed to be undeniable that that was what the Dark Unicorn had done to him…transformed him into one of the creatures he fought against so regularly. _A_ _monster_, he thought nastily, and immediately regretted it. That had been a cruel thing to think. Alice was _not_ a monster…

"Oz, are you going to stop moping already?" B-Rabbit hissed, balancing on her floating scythe.

He got to his feet as quietly as he could. "Sorry, Alice," he apologised, attempting to keep his voice calm. "I'm making too big a deal out of this, aren't –"

"No you're not," she cut in. "You're not making _enough_ of a deal of it. It's just that right now, we've got something to do."

He didn't respond, turning back towards Lotti and her colleague.

"So, I'm a Chain," he whispered. "What do I do about it?"

"Fight," Alice said simply. "You should have plenty of power. Just take it. See if you can transform into anything. I couldn't, at first, but I soon found that when I was at full strength, I would change into this form –"

The sounds of arguing had stopped.

Twigs snapped and leaves crackled as the Baskerville man pushed them aside. He looked at Alice and Oz for a moment. They looked at him. Lotti giggled from behind them.

Then – Alice's scythe whistled as she swung it, the Baskerville drew his sword and whipped it up to block with a ringing _clang_, and Oz ended up awkwardly somersaulting out of the way, scratching himself on twigs and crashing into a tree. Head throbbing, he stumbled to his feet. _Should have plenty of power. Just take it. _Where was this power? What had she been _talking_ about? He was pretty useless in fights, it was Alice who took care of that sort of thing-

The sword sliced through the air, whistling towards Oz's head. He swerved, and purely out of reflex, reached up and grabbed the blade before it could touch him.

He blinked a couple of times. His hand wasn't cut. Somehow he had managed to pinch the flat with thumb and forefinger, without touching the razor-sharp edges…

_That's what I'm talking about, _Alice said with satisfaction. But Oz wasn't done yet. Curiously, he pushed, forcing the Baskerville's arm back. Beads of sweat formed on the man's brow as he tried to wrest his sword from Oz's grip.

Oz gave an experimental twist. The blade crumpled like tinfoil and the man went white. Lotti laughed again. "The Master won't be pleased! You've broken a Baskerville Armoury weapon! Tut, tut…"

"It was only a cheap one," the man snapped, tossing it aside. "The genuine heirloom's at home." He began to back away.

Oz laughed in delight. Power raced through him, like electricity crackling and snapping in his blood... it was…it felt…wonderful…

More…

Light began to gather around him.

More…

_This_ time, the change didn't hurt. It was quick, and painless, and didn't really change anything _major _at all - though he did feel bigger, actually. Quite a bit bigger. And stronger, and faster, and generally pretty much all around _better._ And he had claws.

Oz leaped.

xxx

_Yes, I suck at scenes where any sort of fighting occurs. Hopefully I'm going to get better at them soon because there's going to be more than one in this story. _

_I totally took Oz's move with the Baskerville's sword from Princess Mononoke. Seen it? You should, it's great. I love Studio Ghibli films. They're all on my list of favourite films, along with Sweeney Todd and Avatar, because Avatar has pretty graphics (DON'T JUDGE ME) and Sweeney Todd is just plain epic. It's not for the faint hearted, though. High Pressure Blood abounds._

_Where's my REVIEW button? Is that my REVIEW button? It is a button. It goes REVIEW. Hooray, hooray, it's a wonderful day, for someone has reviewed!_


	6. despair and die

**CHAPTER SIX**

The Unicorn caught a man with a Trump Card first. The man was so weak that he transformed in a mere ten seconds. The stronger you were going to be as a Chain, the longer time it took to change. This one had barely been worth the effort…but two weak Chains together still meant lots of power.

The new Chain pair, while testing out their newfound power, wrecked three streets and Leverru Bank. The Unicorn didn't stay to watch. Instead it grinned, and went about its work, dodging at least three harried-looking Pandora officers on the way. Honestly, it hadn't even left the city that Pandora was situated in! This was just too easy…

It went on to change three more pairs, both significantly stronger than the first. The state things had got to here! Time was, the Unicorn had had to fight over every last illegal contractor with Pandora for any chance at changing them, and there hadn't been that many to begin with. Really and _truly…_It shook its head disapprovingly as it stalked up the steps to Parliament House, slipped past the guards, and went inside.

But it wasn't _really_ complaining. Illegal contractors were running riot in this city. The whole place was on the knife edge of complete chaos, and it was just about to tip over. And that was hardly a bad thing.

The Unicorn decided to take a look at the Parliament records room. It tipped several history books off the shelves, attempting to find material on itself. It wasn't _vain_, of course - it just needed to know how long it had been since…

_The Dark Unicorn is the most powerful Chain known to our records…gathers power from chaos and/or misery…it first appeared 50 years before the Tragedy of Sabrie...sealed up as soon as possible by House Rainsworth...freed again 50 years after the Tragedy of Sabrie…gained most of its power in a rampage during its…sealed by House Bezarius…_

Hmm...Rainsworth again.

It flicked through the book, shredding the edges of the pages with its claws. It ended up halfway through the chapter on House Rainsworth.

_-one of the oldest Duke Houses. Traditionally, the eldest son or daughter takes the title of Duke or Duchess. Currently, the Lady Shelley is Duchess. Her heir, Lady Sharon, is an officer of Pandora. However, Sharon appears to have signed a contract with the Chain Eques, which does not bode well for her prospects of becoming Duchess in the future, as any Duke or Duchess of Rainsworth must sign a contract with the Chain Owl before they can take the title._

The Unicorn was finding some of this information familiar.

_Interestingly, the unicorn (NB: a horse, with a horn protruding from its head) is a little-known but enduring motif of House Rainsworth, even dating back to the time of Duchess Serafina Rainsworth. The Chain Eques has the form of a dark coloured unicorn. More information on Eques in –_

Though something about that paragraph was niggling at it, the Unicorn abandoned the book and glanced out the window, into the city. Time to check up on the yellow boy and his 'bloody rabbit'. He should have changed by now…

It left the city, regretting that the Chains would probably wreck Parliament. The place had some lovely decorations, and truly priceless bevels.

xxx

The Baskerville man lay bleeding on the ground, and Lotti was no longer laughing.

Jack Bezarius' words echoed in her mind. _You cannot match the power of B-Rabbit. _Well, she could try. She raised her dagger, placing her other hand on Leon's back. Who knew if Jack was even in there still? Oz Bezarius was a Chain now…

At that moment, the Chain in question was crouching over the bleeding corpse, lips pulled back in a snarl, claws shining scarlet. He had taken the form of a young lion, pale yellow, lacking a mane, and puny compared to Leon. Long, dark wings grew from his back. His eyes blazed a bright, merciless green. The Bloodstained Black Rabbit floated next to him, scythe angled towards the Baskerville pair.

"I'll kill you!" she shrieked, sounding more than a little mad. "We'll kill you! You're going to DIE!"

"Leon," Lotti whispered, "time to run, do you think?"

"He is nothing more than cub," the Chain rumbled. "House Bezarius tiny."

"Idiot," Lotti muttered. Oz was probably strong, but he had never fought properly in his life, judging by the performance he had put up last time they had met. "I'm talking about B-Rabbit. You know, the legendarily powerful B-Rabbit. I spent _ages_ trying to get you out of Abyss last time."_And House Bezarius isn't tiny anymore, you idiot…_

Leon clenched his teeth, looking determinedly ahead. "I can do this."

"No, you can't. Leon –"

Powerful muscles bunched as he crouched like a coiled spring – and then he leaped, claws outstretched. It was a beautiful sight. She couldn't enjoy it, though.

"Leon! STOP –"

Just as B-Rabbit swung her scythe, the restraining command Lotti had issued slammed Leon to the ground. The blade curved overhead, missing him by a metre.

Lotti shrieked in annoyance. "I didn't mean it! Get up, Leon, hurry!"

Leon rolled out of the way of Oz's clumsy swipes and and B-Rabbit's deadly scythe, landing on his paws. He growled defiantly and slammed into Oz's side, bowling him over with superior weight. Oz yelped and jumped backwards, spreading his wings, then slashed at Leon's flank with dark red claws, scoring deep marks in the Chain's pelt.

Lotti wasn't worried - Leon had survived plenty worse than that. He'd kept fighting once even when he had at least three blades stuck in him. Besides, Oz was doing it wrong. The kid had no idea how to fight._ But he looks so much like Jack. And Jack can fight, oh yes he can. Could. Can?_

But then Leon faltered, and for a moment appeared unable to move…

"Just a scratch! Get up!" But Leon didn't seem to hear her. Oz had no idea what he was doing, but from that alone…it looked like he had an _immense _amount of power.

And now B-Rabbit was gliding toward Leon, tensed with anticipation. Lotti _did not want _to admit it, but she felt a sick curl of fear in her stomach at that -

- and then, the Dark Unicorn stepped gracefully out of the air, and knocked B-Rabbit out of her flight, not even seeming to concentrate. Lotti's insides froze.

B-Rabbit's scythe fell from her paws and vanished; the huge beast hit the ground and dissipated, leaving only a young girl with fancy boots and masses of long hair in its place.

GOOD EVENING.

The Unicorn still had blood dripping from its claws. Lotti remembered her subordinate, ripped apart in an instant…remembered all she knew about the Unicorn, with its strange and terrible powers…

Yep. Time to split.

She dashed forward and hauled Leon to his feet by the mane, then sprinted into the cover of the trees, kicking her red heels off. Bare feet would be better than those for running, though her fishnet stockings were going to be _lacerated_. Branches snapped back and whipped her face, making stinging cuts on her arms and legs. Her poor fishnets…no, there wasn't any time to worry about that. She ran faster, ignoring her scratched feet.

Crashing sounds coming from behind her indicated that Oz and B-Rabbit were following behind her. Good for them. Leon panted beside her, blood leaking from the wound in his flank. She hissed in annoyance – he might not be able to keep up if they had to run for too long. She didn't even consider dismissing him – then she'd be alone, with the Unicorn, Oz and B-Rabbit chasing after her.

Once they left this forest, she could regroup and think about calling for more backup – no. Probably couldn't. Would be best to stay low and avoid her family and the Master for a while. Two Baskervilles dead in one night…this was all Pandora's fault…it wasn't fair…

She burst into another clearing – was someone deforesting the place? - and skidded to a halt.

The Unicorn was standing in front of her, peacefully shredding the grass with its claws.

She stamped her foot. That was _cheating_! No WAY! It must have entered Abyss and come out here…like teleportation, or something. Oh, _so _unfair…

And suddenly her face was pressed into the grass, as Oz and the B-Rabbit girl barrelled into the clearing in quite spectacular fashion, knocking her over.

Oz helped her up wordlessly. B-Rabbit merely growled, shooting venomous glances at both of them.

"Stupid kids!" Lotti hissed, getting to her feet and shaking grass bits off her robe. She'd never get those grass stains off. Her outfit was _ruined._

HELLO, HUMAN PERSON AND THREE CHAINS. The Unicorn grinned at her. WOULD YOU LIKE IT TO BE FOUR CHAINS? I WOULD BE SO HAPPY.

"No," she snapped, then yelped and jumped aside as a beam of crackling purple energy shot at her, only missing by a hair.

"Careful, that's what it did to me," the boy said from behind her. "It hurts a lot."

"Nice to know." Her fingers wound themselves tightly into Leon's mane. How could they escape this thing, when it could just teleport ahead of them?

DON'T WORRY, IT WAS ONLY A JOKE.

She turned back to the Unicorn angrily. "Oh, really?"

IT ONLY AFFECTS ILLEGAL CONTRACTORS. YOU ARE QUITE LEGAL. YOU MAKE A NICE YELP, HOWEVER. IT WAS FUN.

Leon growled menacingly, slinking forward.

"Leon, bad time," Lotti hissed. "The Unicorn is too strong…"

AH, SO YOU REMEMBERED. NO, YOU ARE NOT SAFE FROM ME MERELY BECAUSE YOU ARE A LEGAL CONTRACTOR - SUCH A SHAME. YOU SEE, I CAN STILL KILL YOU.

She opened her mouth for an angry retort, but then felt a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back. It was Jack – _no, _not Jack, _Oz_. She half expected him to smile cheekily and show her his latest music box, but he had no smiles for her. She was a Baskerville, after all.

"I just need to be clear about this," he said. "You stabbed Sharon and I don't have any sympathy for you. We should just let the Unicorn eat you, you know."

The Unicorn in question was circling around them, claws digging into the grass. The three Chains and the human person huddled together a little tighter.

"Aww, your voice wavered a touch there," Lotti cooed. "Something tells me you're not very good at ruthlessness!" After all, _she_ was the expert in that field.

So they were just going to abandon her to the Unicorn and save themselves, huh…never mind that her Chain was injured and she couldn't go back to headquarters because she'd probably be blamed for all the deaths that had happened tonight. Of course, they were on opposite sides and she _had_ stabbed their precious Sharon, but _still_.

"Look, that doesn't matter. Alice and I still want to kill you." _I think…_ "Only we have to save you from the Unicorn first."

She looked at him incredulously. So did 'Alice'.

"Are you NUTS?" the rabbit yelled. Suddenly, she was a giant black monster again. "We're going to kill her! We agreed! Let's do it now! Are you chickening out on me? Now that she's standing in front of you, you can't work up the nerve to do it!"

"Come on…let's fight this thing…"

"Well, you have to do a better job than last time. You suck at fighting, you know."

"Ha ha, I don't deny it!"

Lotti frowned at Oz thoughtfully. So…he didn't want to kill her after all? Maybe he was just too much of a natural _hero…_how familiar. It was kind of cute, actually.

He rushed forward and leaped at the Unicorn, changing into a lion in midair. This time he had weapons – a couple of weird metal things that looked like the hands on a clock, floating in the air before him. He seemed to be controlling them psychically. B-Rabbit nodded in satisfaction, then swung her scythe at the Unicorn. Of course, it dodged, and the returning swipe it gave her drew blood.

Lotti jumped as Oz's clock-sword-_things_ shot past her, then swung around to the Unicorn like a pair of boomerangs. He must have summoned them when he realised he couldn't fight very well without weapons. Lion form required practice, after all.

Lotti reached out to ruffle Leon's mane. He shook her off.

"Let me fight her!" he complained.

"What? Who's her?"

"Dark Unicorn is she. You not realise?"

"No! It's just a…it's just an _it_!"

"Is she."

"Ahh, fine then. It's a girl." She stared out at the battle. A girl? Leon must be joking. "But you can't fight her. Sorry, you're injured. And if Oz managed to weaken you that much, then Mrs Unicorn will shred you to pieces." So nice of the Oz and the rabbit to fight for them, but they had to leave soon. They probably wouldn't hold out much longer.

"If I…took by surprise…" Leon was peering at the scene. "I could kill her. Could kill the Unicorn."

"You don't mince words, do you." He'd been able to speak properly once, but the years had taken their toll.

"No." He turned to look at her, and though his face was that of a lion, that of a Chain, she realised then that he had never felt so _human_ as he had then.

And come to think of it, he had been human once, hadn't he? He must have been –

"Won't come back. Sorry, Lotti."

"What? No –"

He dashed forward while the Unicorn was busy fending off Alice's scythe. Leon was limping slightly, but he ignored it and powered forward, eyes on his prey – and he leaped, claws bared -

Lotti clenched her teeth shut. She would not scream. She would not make a sound. She knew that if she wasn't careful, her instincts would betray her, she would rush forward, calling Leon's name…

His claws sank into the Unicorn's back and shoulders, drawing blood. His head came forward, and his jaws closed around the Unicorn's neck. Oz and B-Rabbit backed away.

The Unicorn threw its head back and keened, a wail of pain and fury, and then Leon dissolved – into Abyss energy…into motes of dust…into nothing.

Lotti had brought him back once, but this time he was dead. For good. And he had been wrong, anyway. He hadn't been able to kill the Unicorn. Nothing could kill the Unicorn.

The Unicorn trembled, bleeding and covered in wounds.

ANOTHER…TIME…THEN…

And then it vanished into Abyss.

Its grin was the very last thing to go.

xxx

_Please note that this story is VERY hazy in terms of where it takes place on the timeline. I've already said that it takes place in anime continuity, but I actually don't have much idea when exactly during that continuity it diverges from canon. Probably after the Latowidge episodes but before the House Barma episodes. However, if that's so, there are some pretty big contradictions…uh, never mind. Just go with it :D_

_I think I'm physically incapable of writing a chapter that does not end with anything remotely resembling a cliffhanger. I think it's wired into me, now. Sorry, guys. Besides, the outline of my story seems pretty relentless – I don't think there's room for non cliffhanger chapter endings. However, I'll try to be merciful as much as possible from now on :P _

_No, wait. By definition, the end of a fanfic chapter will ALWAYS make you want to read the next one. So…aren't all fanfic chapter endings cliffhangers? *desperately seeks excuses**comes to realisation that I'm ADDICTED TO CLIFFHANGERS*_

_Oh God, I can't stop! Somebody help me!_

_*bows* And there's your bit of nonsense for the day, folks._

_Remember to leave a review- they make me happy. :D  
_


	7. follow the rage

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

Panting, Oz collapsed. He barely noticed when he turned back into human form. He _really _wasn't good at fighting, unlike Alice, who was still on her feet and breathing normally.

"Slob," she snipped at him over her shoulder. Naturally, he shrugged the insult off, then looked over at the spot where Leon had died and the Unicorn had vanished. It was as if the struggle had never happened. The grass was trampled and shredded slightly where they had fought, but aside from that…

He was about to turn away when a glint of gold, half concealed by the grass, caught his eye. He crawled over to pick it up. It was Leon's gold crown. He turned it over curiously, inspecting it. It hadn't perished with the lion, so maybe it was part of the real world…

On the inside of the shining band, words were engraved in an old, flowing script that was actually quite hard to decipher. He squinted at it carefully.

*LET IT BE WITNESSED *THAT WHOEVER WEARS THIS CROWN UPON HIS HEAD *HAS EMERGED VICTORIOUS FROM BATTLE *AND HAS CLAIMED THE RIGHT*TO BE THE NEXT DUKE OF THE ANCIENT AND MOST NOBLE HOUSE OF RAINSWORTH*

Where the text ended, there were some small engravings of a lion and a unicorn, in stylised heraldry positions.

Well, that was confusing. After all, it wasn't like _Leon_ was the Duke of Rainsworth, and he had worn this crown.

"Don't bother putting it on, it won't suit you. Give it here."

Alice, of course. She snatched it out of his hands, holding it up and squinting at the inscription.

"Wouldn't suit you either," he said honestly. She hit him with it.

"Ow!"

"Serves you right! A manservant shouldn't tell his master what fashion doesn't suit her! Well, if it doesn't, you should, but if it does, well, this crown is really nice! And maybe I _want _to be the Duke of Rainsworth! Well, I don't. But still - how dare…"

Attention drifting, Oz realised that Lotti hadn't spoken since Leon had died. He peered at her curiously.

She was sitting on the grass, knees tucked up to her chin, arms wrapped around herself. It was a position Oz was familiar with. Her eyes stared vacantly into the distance. He imagined what it would feel like to lose Alice, and he felt a lump gather in his throat.

Crawling towards her, he reached out a hand to her shoulder. "Hey," he said hoarsely.

She raised her head, a frosty smile playing on her lips. "Hi there…little boy. What do you want?"

"Well…you seem a bit-"

"You were going to kill me, right?" She glared at him, cold and ruthless. Her teeth showed.

"Well, yes, but –"

"My Chain is dead. I'm defenceless." Lotti spread her arms out wide, and raised her chin. "Go on! Kill me! DO IT!" _Little boy-!_

"But-"

Alice was suddenly at his shoulder. "Oz, what are we waiting for? I'll do it if you're too squeamish!"

Oz squared up to her. "Sorry, Alice, but...you can't kill her."

Seeing an opportunity, Lotti dropped her arms and shuffled closer.

"EXCUSE ME? What did you SAY?"

"I don't want you to kill h–"

His words were cut off when Lotti hauled him to his feet, arm around his chest, and held her dagger to his neck.

He shrank back from it, breathing shallowly. This was the dagger that nearly killed Sharon…

"Oh, little boy, you show such mercy! How very gracious of you!" Lotti giggled into his ear. "Rabbit, make one move and I slit his throat. He might survive – he's a Chain now. But I doubt it. After all…he's just a cute little _weakling_."

"YOU-!" Alice was bright red with anger, her hands balled into fists. "Get away from my manservant NOW!"

"I'm so defenceless, a poor defenceless little girl!" Lotti laughed with a wild grin. Oz gasped as the dagger nicked his skin slightly, drawing a quivering bead of blood. She bent her head and licked it off slowly as he shuddered. "Surrounded by Chains who want to kill me! You just couldn't resist, could you?" She sighed mockingly. "Well, what else did I expect of Jack Bezarius? Always trying to save people..."

Then she dropped Oz to the ground, and let the dagger fall as well. Alice's arms dropped to her sides in shock.

"There. Had my chance, didn't take it." Lotti was serious all of a sudden. "I spared your life, J- Oz. Now you spare mine."

Alice shook her head. "No! That's not fair!" She stamped the ground. "You nearly killed Sharon!"

Lotti pounced on that. "_Nearly? _Aha! So she didn't die after all!" Her family wouldn't believe that, though… "That means you don't have the right to kill me anyway! A life for a life, fair enough, but one of them hasn't even been taken!"

Oz's brow furrowed. Lotti was right, actually. They _didn't _have a right to kill her, if you looked at it like that.

"Oz, don't listen to her! She's a Baskerville!"

"Introductions, then, if we're going to team up? I'm Lotti Baskerville, you're Oz Bezarius, and I'm assuming you're called Alice…?"

"It's B-Rabbit to you, thanks."

Oz took a piece of crumpled cloth out of his pocket.

"Look, I've got nowhere to go," Lotti said. "You won't want to accept this, but…can we stick together?"

"What…like, _team up?" _Alice said incredulously. "No _way._"

"It's a long way back to Pandora," Lotti said. "We came pretty far – and aha! Is that the message I left you? You took it from her body?"

Oz nodded, studying the message. Then he returned it to his pocket, face grim. "We were the first ones to discover her body…I took this note with me when we left. No one else has seen it."

"Oh, this isn't good for you at all, is it…" Lotti said with mock sadness. "So Sharon's attacked…but no one knows who by. Tell me, does Pandora know about your condition?"

Oz nodded his head, his face pale. "I…think so…Break probably knows."

"What are you blabbering about?" Alice growled.

"We probably can't go back to Pandora," Oz said. "Sorry."

"Why NOT?"

Lotti laughed. "Why don't you ask them?" She pointed into the shadows.

"What is it?"

"Look a little closer, rabbit."

Alice squinted. _There…_

"Oh, you mean that agent hiding in the bushes?" she asked.

Oz did a double take. The Pandora agent hissed with annoyance, and stepped out of the bushes.

"It's them!" he shouted over his shoulder. "Oz and B-Rabbit, and they're with a Baskerville!"

"You IDIOT, not so loud! They're going to run now…"

The other agent was right.

Snatching up the crown Alice had dropped, Lotti began the process of mourning her fishnets. Oz was ahead this time, with Alice lagging behind.

"Hurry up!"

Alice growled at him, then transformed into her rabbit form, hauled Lotti and Oz up and _flew. _The shouts of Pandora agents echoed behind them, but for now, they were faster, and they were ahead. B-Rabbit rose above the trees and jumped from branch to branch, long chains whipping through the air.

Oz strained his ears, trying to hear what the agent behind him was saying, but it was kind of hard, considering the fact that he was dangling from Alice's paw as she flew over the forest in great leaping bounds.

There was a voice, echoing from behind them, partly lost to the whipping wind.

"Dangerous Chains...Lady Sharon…Oz…rabbit…arrest….take you back to headquar…execute Baskerville…you…imprisoned…come quietly…"

So that's how it was. He gazed at the treetops. They were flying away from Pandora HQ and the city, into the wilderness.

_I wonder where Gil is?_

Gil had been out when they had freed the Unicorn…but he'd be back by now. He'd believe that Oz was innocent. If they could just talk to him –find him somehow –

-And then Oz was falling.

Something had knocked him from Alice's grasp. He yelled out as he hit the tree branches, then realised that he was being pretty stupid, and changed into his lion form, spreading his wings.

"Oz!" It was Alice, flying down after him. He touched down on the ground lightly for once, but was too late to dodge when Alice dropped Lotti on top of him. She stroked his ear, giggling, until he growled and shook her off.

Then Alice hit the ground head first. Oz winced and poked her gently. She was OK, but would be out for a couple of minutes.

Then the Pandora agent landed in front of him, throwing his gun from hand to hand. A shot from that gun was the thing that had knocked Oz out of the air…Oz growled and unsheathed his claws.

"Salutations, Chain. My name is Michael," the agent said, voice quavering just a tiny bit. He coughed, then adopted a tone that sounded like he was following some kind of procedure. "You are the Chains 'Oz' and 'B-Rabbit' and …" - he gulped - "a Baskerville?" He sounded less confident every second. His Chain, a wooden horse with wings, buzzed nervously beside him. "We have been instructed to apprehend you…and, um, remove you to headquarters…"

"Get on with it," Lotti said loudly. Oz stepped forward.

"You are forbidden to attack myself, my Chain or, uh, anyone, who…" He trailed off, and backed against a tree. His Chain buzzed with agitation. Oz continued to advance.

"Horsefly, help me!" Michael shouted. It squealed and flew forward. Oz jerked and dodged, then swiped at it and jumped back. His clock swords floated around him, spinning and jabbing.

Michael continued to recite as they fought in front of him. "You will be imprisoned in, um, separate cells – "

"Is this Pandora policy or something?" Lotti broke in. "Are you actually supposed to talk for ages before you start capturing the capturee?"

"No, but this is my first expedition, actually," Michael admitted. "Thought I'd do it by the book…"

"Ahh, I see," Lotti said understandingly. "I getcha. You probably should've picked an easier one to start off with, though. Oh, and next time, read them their rights _after _you've captured them!"

Michael gulped. Then, as if determined to finish what he had started, he continued reciting, as Oz started to bite Horsefly's wings off.

"…For the crime of assault and grievous harm to Lady Sharon Rainsworth, this expedition has been sanctioned by, uh, Master Mad Hatter alias Xerxes Break…"

Lotti bit her lip and kept silent. Oz paused, looking hurt, then ripped Horsefly's leg off viciously. Michael winced.

"…and led by Master Raven alias Gilbert Nightray –"

Horsefly dissolved into nothing with a screech. Oz spread his wings and flew straight at Michael, knocking him over and pinning him to the ground with his claws.

"Gil? Gil's leading this expedition?"

"Uh, yes…" Michael's eyes were terrified. "D-did you want to speak to him?"

"Yes! Where is he?"

"Sorry, I'm not allowed to…"

"Please, you have to tell me!" Oz's voice was wild. He flickered in between human and Chain form rapidly, desperate boy and vicious lion. "I _really_ need to find Gil!"

"You're a Chain, what do you want to speak to Gil for? I can't tell you, anyway." He was babbling now. "Not allowed, see. You're a dangerous Chain…unstable…etecetera, can't let you see Master Raven, need to capture…"

He trailed off.

There was a slight _click._

And then Oz felt cold metal poking against his chest. It was Michael's gun. The man gave a shaky smile of triumph. Oz screamed with rage and fear - he could see the man's finger tightening on the trigger – NO -!

- and so he lunged forward, teeth bared, dark wings fanning forward around the human –

- the gun _fired_, and missed - just grazing his neck –

-his jaws sank into Michael's throat –

-his claws carved furrows in his chest –

- blood, running into his mouth, down his muzzle, soaking into his fur, down his claws...

"Oz?"

Behind him. Alice. She had woken up. He paused, drawing back.

"What are you doing?"

He realised he had changed back to human form. But he was still a Chain. Still a Chain inside. His eyes glassy, expression frozen, he sat back, next to Michael's body. Blood covered his mouth, dripped down his chin, dyed his clothes and his hands scarlet.

Still a Chain_. He was the Chain who had done this_. He had. This was. He –this – killed –

He knelt there, next to the body. His hands shook. He stared, unseeing, into the trees. This could have been Sharon. He had committed the crime he was wanted for.

He looked human, but he was still a Chain inside.

He heard Alice walk up beside him. He turned his head to face her, and she flinched. His eyes were empty, his face painted with red. Flecks of it spattered his golden hair.

"Don't talk," he said.

She kept her mouth shut, but sat down beside him. Lotti hung back in the shadows, turning Leon's crown over and over through her hands.

Oz reached out and closed Michael's glassy eyes, smearing the eyelids with red, as the world turned towards dawn.

xxx

_*If you know me, you know I love to draw. While I'm thinking about this story, I often doodle with my tablet on GIMP. Among other things, I've done quick sketches of Oz's Chain form and the Dark Unicorn. _

_I've decided to post the pics so you can see them if you want. Remove the spaces in the URLs – fanficnet is mean and kills them unless you space them like this._

_- Oz- _http : / / i975. photobucket. com/albums/ae234/hikari_starling_night/ lion_oz. jpg

- http : / / i975. photobucket. com/albums/ae234/hikari_starling_night/ozzy. jpg

_-Dark Unicorn – _http : / / i975. photobucket. com/albums/ae234/hikari_starling_night/unicorn. jpg

_*I'm a bit nervous about Lotti's characterisation. What do you think? Oz might be a bit off too, but you knew that..Oz is just really damn hard to write. Possibly THE hardest character I've ever tried to write. It's like Break said – you just can't pin him down._

_*I had lots of fun writing the last part of this chapter, but it took a bit of tinkering to avoid complicating things farther. _

_*More hints to Eques and Leon's history in this chapter._

_*I've done my best to create a non cliffhanger chapter ending. I'm not sure that it worked very well, however._

_*Reviews are love. They boost my ego._

_*Enjoy your week! :D_


	8. wear the mask

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

"We've got 'em! They're down there, sir!" Gil's subordinate yelled, pointing down at a small point in the trees below. Ecstatic, Gil whipped around to face him.

"Land! Now!"

"Yes, sir!"

They landed a short way from the spot.

"You want me along?"

"No, that's alright. I can handle this."

Now alone, Gil hurried towards the spot that his subordinate had indicated. He was going to find Oz, after such a short time! He pushed a branch aside. Then he could deal with all this…

"Oz –"

The sight before him stopped him in his tracks.

Gil didn't know the agent who was lying mangled and broken at his feet. He had seen his face before, though. He had been a rookie, straight out of Lutwidge.

Oz looked up. He was covered in blood. His face, his hands, his clothes.

"Michael," he said blankly. "His name was Michael."

Gil's whole body trembled. "Oz…no…" His master…his young master… "But Break is wrong…you're innocent…you didn't do that to Sharon…"

"Do I _look_ innocent? DO I?" Oz growled, his eyes wild.

Gil flinched. His gaze dropped to Michael's body. He crouched and drew the agent into his arms, disregarding the blood that stained his coat.

"Oz…you did this to Michael?" he stammered, disbelieving, refusing to accept this, to believe it -

"He was going to kill me," Oz said blankly. "So I…killed him…"

Not Oz. Not innocent young Oz. Not his master. No.

"This can't be true," he whispered. "Break is wrong."

He reached out, but Oz jerked away.

A giggle sounded from behind him. It was a girl wearing the robe of a Baskerville. Alice stood next to her, arms folded. What was going _on?_

"Oz, I need you to tell me one thing," Gil said.

He was silent.

"Was it your fault about…what happened to Sharon?"

"…Yes."

"Oz, no!" Alice cried out. "Don't be stupid – it wasn't –"

"I blame myself," he whispered, fingering something in his pocket. "I blame myself for this."

Despairing, Gil shook his head, trying to deny it. "No – Oz – no, it wasn't, you didn't, you couldn't have –"

Oz's features tightened. "Believe me."

And then it wasn't Oz sitting there in front of him – it was a young lion, long black wings bursting from its back. Its emerald eyes seared into Gil. Blood matted its golden fur.

Gil had known it was the case, but he hadn't really believed that Oz was a Chain until then.

"I'm a Chain now," Oz growled. "I tore this man apart. It's my fault about Sharon." Behind him, the Baskerville tutted and whispered something, and Alice responded heatedly, sounding like she _agreed _with her. "I can't control my instincts. _All this is my fault."_

"Oz…" Gil had tears in his eyes now. "But I…I believe in you…"

"Don't believe in me," Oz said. "Just believe me. Break is right."

_Oz Bezarius, for all intents and purposes, is dead…in his place is –guess what!- a mad and dangerous Chain… He is not Oz any longer. I will not repeat that again…_ _So, I'll give you a chance to see for yourself…_

He was not Oz any longer…

"I'll…I'll come back for you later," Gil said blankly. "I give you this chance to run, because you…you were once my beloved master. But I'll be back."

Carrying Michael, he turned and left.

Oz waited until he was sure the Pandora expedition had departed. Then he turned back into a human, and sobbed and sobbed until he could not cry any longer. Alice sat by his side.

And though they couldn't hear her, Lotti cried silently too, clutching the golden lion's crown in her hands so tightly that it felt like it might break. There was no one to comfort her. No one to mourn the Chain of a Baskerville, except for her.

And then Oz wiped his sleeve across his face and stood. "Eh, we've been sticking around here for a while…time to leave?" The dead look in his eyes was gone, and he was smiling.

Alice frowned. "…Fine."

xxx

"Careful, Alice…don't step in that."

"What? It's just a shadow, let go of me!"

"No, really, don't step in that shadow!"

Dawn was approaching, and the forest was lightening up. Sunlight gilded the leaves and cast dappled patterns of light on the tree trunks and the ground. It was almost pretty enough to make Oz, Alice and Lotti forget that they had nowhere to go, had no idea how to get out of the forest, and had no idea how to even _survive_ in a forest until they got out. Currently, they were aimlessly walking along, hoping to come across a convenient hermit's cave, or possibly a hotel.

Lotti peered at the patch of inky blackness. "What's wrong with it? You scared of the dark, little boy?"

"Wait," he insisted.

They did. Lotti fidgeted with her hair.

"Alright…I'm pretty sure now," Oz said cautiously, breaking the silence.

"About_ what?"_

He ignored her. "…Eques? You're in there, right?"

At the mention of Eques, Lotti's eyes widened, and she dashed behind a tree.

And then the darkness moved, and Eques rose up from the ground, rising out of the darkness like

"Hi, Eques!" Oz said brightly. "Ahhh…can we speak to Sharon?"

But the unicorn Chain simply whinnied furiously and pawed the ground with his hoof. _How dare you! It's YOUR fault Sharon has been injured! You confessed the truth to Raven, just two hours ago, and now you dare –_

"Oh, yeah…" Oz scratched his head. "About that…uh…misunderstanding?"

_There was NO misunderstanding!_

"I'll take over from here," Alice cut in, shoving Oz aside. "Now, listen, you donkey-eared MULE, I don't care what Oz confessed to, he's just a moron who blames himself for everything even though it causes trouble for everyone." She shot him a death glare. "We weren't the ones who mauled Sharon! That wasn't us! It was this annoying _pink _person here…"

She trailed off. The annoying person was nowhere to be seen.

_Ugh, Baskervilles!_ "Anyway! It-it wasn't our fault…"

_I see,_ Eques said icily. _I'm sure you can _prove_ it, then, that Oz's confession was not the truth?_

"I…" She clenched her fists.

_My mistress has been brutally attacked and may not live to see tomorrow. Do you have proof?_

"We didn't do it!"

_You say you are innocent. But what of the Pandora agent?_

"…What?"

"Michael," Oz muttered.

"Michael? But that was self defense, the agent had a gun-"

_And _here_ is the truth. _

"Wait – let us speak to Sharon – "

You_ clawed her throat, she is unable to speak at present. _Eques' eyes narrowed. _I grow tired of this! Enough!_

He neighed, and reared, and darkness soared up all around him.

Alice raised her chin, summoning her favourite 'contemptuous look'. "You really think you can defeat _us? _My name is B-Rabbit, FOOL, and this is – uh –" she cast around wildly – "B-Lion and B-Baskerville!"

"Please forget those last two," Oz put in.

"ANYWAY. Your power is no match for ours, so –"

Eques rushed at her, hooves kicking up leaf litter and dust – it flew in Lotti's eyes, and she hissed, batting at her face –

- Oz sighed slightly, and then he was leaping and clawing and biting and loose feathers flew from his wings- and as B-Rabbit glided forward, scythe in hand, Eques screamed, and screamed, and screamed…

xxx

"Stop moping, it gets better after a while."

"I'm not _moping_ -"

"You are, shut up. Anyway, as I was saying…well…you kind of stop _caring _after a while. Well, not really, but you don't care…_so_ much…"Alice trailed off.

"True, that," Lotti interjected. "And after a while, it even starts to get…fun…" She giggled. If this comment bothered Oz, he didn't show any sign of it, other than refusing to respond.

"Yeah, makes it a lot easier. And you _are_ moping," Alice went on, shooting a death glare at the Baskerville. It was one thing to murder people because you had to – she was long used to that – but another thing entirely to do it for fun, in cold blood...

Back to Oz. She could sense her attempts to console him weren't doing much good. Why not? She had plenty of experience - but thinking back, she had never killed an innocent ally…only Chains, and enemies…

"OH! You're talking about killing people, right?"

Alice and Lotti stopped walking and turned around to face him. "_Yes_, idiot," they snapped in unison.

"Well, at least I have something to look forward to." Oz grinned playfully. "Wouldn't want it to be _difficult _for me to kill people, after all…"

Alice shot him a look. He didn't _look _like he was moping, not really. It was hard to tell with him. He seemed to have recovered pretty fast, though he was still soaking wet from scrubbing all the blood off in a stream, and couldn't get the stains out of his shirt. And now he was walking and smiling, eyes lively and playful, hands in his pockets…

Overall, he was behaving like normal, cheerful Oz.

Yes. _Very_ hard to tell. And it SHOULDN'T be, because he was HER manservant! She growled under her breath. So, all she could do was just assume that he was moping. And in that case…

She served him a backhand to the head.

"OW!" he cried, rubbing the place where she had hit him. "What did I do this ti-"

"You're moping," Alice interrupted brusquely. "I've experienced enough times like this with you! So right here, right now...I'm going to MAKE you stop moping!"

"Oh, really? And…would that involve _cheering him up_ in any shape or form?" Lotti asked innocently, her face very carefully blank.

"Of COURSE!" Alice declared, shoving Oz into a kneeling position and placing her boot on his shoulder. Oz's cries of pain went unheeded. "He is MY manservant, and I cannot allow him to _mope _when he should be SERVING ME!" Mad laughter rang through the air.

Lotti's face was so blank you could have written a book on it.

"And, uh, is this normal for you two?" she said, keeping her voice level with difficulty.

"Don't worry, she does this all the time," Oz volunteered weakly.

Lotti couldn't stifle a snicker. "Oh, so it's _not_ the insanity kicking in? Well, in that case…"

She trailed off. They were staring at her.

"What? What is it?"

"Insanity?" Oz echoed back at her.

"Baskerville," Alice growled, "we don't trust you and we aren't going to, but if you have even the _slightest _desire to make us even WANT to trust you –" at this she let Oz go, and suddenly B-Rabbit was looming over Lotti, scythe in hand – "then you'd better tell us what you mean. Everything that you know and we don't. _Now."_

Lotti sighed. And they'd been going so well, too. Almost like they weren't mortal enemies. She folded her arms and smirked at them playfully. "No need to be so violent about it!"

"Insanity?" Oz said, trying the word out in a questioning tone.

"I'm telling you-"

"I know, I know! You are so irritating…" She sniffed. "Look. It's like this. When the Dark Unicorn turns you into a Chain, you and your contracted partner get a _lot _of power. Even more than B-Rabbit, making you…way too powerful for your own good."

"_Insanity_," said Oz.

"And, yeah…the drawback is, you turn insane. Sometimes quite quickly, sometimes slowly, I hear it depends…"

She trailed off.

"Um, can you not...chop me to pieces with that?" She gestured at Alice's scythe. "I assumed you knew! And it's not _me _who turned you into a Chain, Oz Bezarius…"

Oz turned to Alice. "Put the scythe away."

"NO! Why should –"

"_Do it."_

Shocked at Oz's steely tone, Alice complied, shrinking back down to her human form.

And then, almost instantly, he was all smiles and politeness again, turning to Lotti with his hands folded behind his back.

"Thank you, Lotti!" he chirped. "It'll be really helpful for us to know that we're going to turn slowly insane. But don't worry! We'll manage!"

His smile twitched slightly.

"And we wouldn't at all think of blaming Lotti for this, or for not telling us – would we, Alice!"

Lotti began to shuffle backwards as unnoticeably as she could manage.

"You've been a great help! Could you continue to help…say, by making a campfire? And a shelter? And …"

Lotti sighed inwardly as Oz continued to drone on. It wasn't like she knew how to camp, herself. But she had no Chain apart from these two, and they could rip her apart in seconds…

Pragmatic as ever, she smiled with her mouth and began to search for dried wood. If only she knew what it looked like…

The corset wasn't helping.

xxx

_Ahh, Ch 8…it's finally here! I've been really busy lately, there's been tons of study and work to do, so this chapter has been delayed...a lot. Sorry ^^; Up until chapter 7, I posted a chapter once a week. That's not going to happen any more for a while, as I'm doing NaNoWriMo in November, and won't be devoting much time to fanfic. There will be a chapter in November, though. _

_Hahaha, I just realised poor Lotti doesn't have any shoes. She kicked them off when running from the Dark Unicorn, and now she's got to traipse around the forest with no shoes…serves her right for wearing heels._


	9. stay the course

**CHAPTER NINE**

Break hummed lightly, the sound echoing through the large main hall of Rainsworth Mansion. He'd spent a lot of time here when Sharon had been younger, so the painted walls, the chandeliers and the pillars, were all so familiar that he barely noticed them. Lady Shelley was drinking tea at the opposite end of the hall, her back to him. If she registered his presence, she didn't give any sign of it. He decided not to draw her attention, ducking through a door and into the side corridor that would lead to Sharon's room. It was not as rich and well-decorated as the rest of the mansion, but nor was it ugly or plain by any stretch of the imagination. The floor was tiled, and detailed paintings adorned the walls.

During his stay at the mansion, he had never really paid attention to them, but now, he could not help but realise that all the painted figures on the walls were of unicorns, and of rampant lions, locked in battle. He narrowed his eye, sweeping his gaze along the mural. The unicorns looked _very _similar to Eques, for that matter, and the lions all wore crowns, thin black wings sprouting from their backs.

Hmmm. _Interesting_.

His gaze rested on a small, painted name at the very right corner of the mural. It read 'FOR THE DUCHESS-TO-BE SERAFINA RAINSWORTH'. The name was familiar, he thought. A coincidence, perhaps? Lions with crowns and unicorns with shining black coats…and not to mention the Dark Unicorn's escape…

But no matter- he'd better go in. He needed to see for himself that Sharon was alright. Break opened the small wooden door, not bothering to knock, and let himself inside.

The room, painted a pale shade of blue, could only be described as _pretty, _or delicate, maybe. He had always wondered about the blue – Sharon's favourite colour was violet, after all - but the room was old, and had belonged to Ladies Rainsworth before Sharon. The furniture, too, was delicate, and Break knew that every piece was antique, dating back to before the Tragedy of Sabrie. He gave an old lampshade an experimental poke with his cane, one whose light he remembered reading to Sharon by. It dropped off the carved stool it had been sitting on, and rolled over to the leg of the four poster bed, where it cracked in two.

Yes, definitely delicate. "Oopsy," Break said aloud.

There was a faint, breathy sigh, and a sound that was eerily similar to someone slapping their palm against their forehead. He looked up to see Sharon lying in the bed, swathed in blankets. She gave a weak smile.

"Mistress Sharon!" Break said, not bothering to conceal his relief that she was awake. He swept to her side. "You're alright, then?"

She shrugged and pointed to her neck, which was wrapped tightly with white bandages.

"Oh, you can't speak…hmm, that's a bit of a bother."

She winced, and shrugged again.

"We could make a kind of…language of sighing?" he suggested. "Or throat clearing. Like a code." Break usually had no problem at all with one-sided conversations, but it got a bit strange when _Sharon _was the silent party.

Sharon shot him a look, and he laughed. "I'm glad you're alright," he said cheerfully. "I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that we're in the process of apprehending the ones who did that to you."

Her eyes lit up, and she visibly relaxed with relief.

"Of course, we'll let you know when they are caught." He imagined that she was saying 'thank you.' "The wound in your neck was made by a knife, and the wounds in your back were made by claws," he continued. "Pretty brutal, yes?"

She winced again, a hand going to her bandaged throat. His gaze flicked to her other hand, which was clutching something.

"What's that you're holding?" Break asked, noticing it. He moved closer, and laughed when he saw what it was. She tried to jerk it away, but he snatched it off her, grinning. "Oh, yes! Isn't this just _precious!"_

It was a short picture book, entitled 'The Lion and the Unicorn.' Each page was devoted to a line of the old nonsense poem, and illustrated beautifully. The book was a couple hundred years old, but was still robust as ever, and it was tradition for every Rainsworth child to have it read to them.

"Is this what I think it is?" he crowed, flipping through the richly decorated pages of the book. "It's your old picture book, isn't it, Miss Sharon! Oh, I remember when you were just _this high –" _at this,he demonstrated her height by pretending he was patting the head of a girl about the level of his knee – "and I would read this silly nonsense poem to you, over and _over_!"

She shot him a glare that said, _Stop exaggerating. Please._

"Look, here's the lion victorious and, hmm, covered in …is this really a children's book?" he wondered. "Oh, and here's the drums and the cake –"

Sharon's frown was darkening rapidly. Break gave a smug grin, sensing not a little embarrassment on her part. "You know, I never realised," he commented, Sharon scowling at him like a thundercloud, "but the Unicorn in this story looks quite like Eques, doesn't it?"

The scowl vanished, and a pleading expression replaced it.

"Oh, I see, sorry," Break said. "You want a notepad and a pen, yes?"

She rolled her eyes and slumped back. He hurriedly fetched the materials and gave them to her.

_No, you idiot, but I guess this is helpful, _she wrote.

"Oops. Sorry!"

_I want to know about Eques, _she wrote. _Where is he?_

Break frowned. He didn't actually know. "Why can't you simply call him?_"_

_If I could, I wouldn't need to ask for your help.__  
_

"Okay, then…wait a minute, I'll call HQ and find out." He concentrated, telling Mad Hatter to send the message, and proceeding to ignore the wave of dizziness and nausea that always spread over him the moment he even _contacted_ his Chain. At least he didn't need to use its powers right now, or things would turn out…hmm, badly.

Mad Hatter replied almost immediately, and Break's fists clenched. "HQ says there's no response," he said. "Eques was last seen chasing a Baskerville, but that Baskerville turned out to be a fake, a kind of illusion."

Sharon nodded. Lucky for her. _He, _however, didn't have any idea as to what the Baskervilles had to do will all this…strangely enough. They usually had something to do with _everything_. But this time, it was all his fault…he shoved the thought away.

"And then, after that – nothing," he finished. "There's been no contact with him…I apologise."

She slumped back, looking to be on the verge of tears. Break didn't go to her side. Instead, he sat on the spindly stool, and he opened the book. On the title page was a long list of handwritten names, most of them scratched out, except for the last.

_Serafina Rainsworth_

_Sarah Rainsworth_

_Ernest and Leon Rainsworth __Leon and Ernest Ra __Ernest and Leon Rainsworth_

_Laurence Rainsworth_

And so on, until –

_Sharon Rainsworth_

He began to read, and Sharon's face gradually relaxed into a faint smile.

xxx

Oz sighed, finding it hard to ignore the gnawing, empty sensation in his stomach. He could really do with some food, but none of them had any idea how to get hold of some while in the middle of a forest, having either lost all their memories or grown up in a noble mansion, with cooks and servants and dinnertimes. They would probably have to find their way out of here before they starved to death or fell to the ground from lack of sleep, but this too was a bit of a dangerous option, given that they were all wanted by Pandora.

Lotti had somehow managed to make a fire, after a lot of messing around and failed attempts. For some reason, when Oz had asked her to do it, she had complied immediately. Flexing his fingers, he could feel the power tucked away in there, burning and fizzling in his nerves, ready to be unleashed at any second. It was And all of a sudden, he knew why she had done his bidding.

He looked at her face closely. Lately she had seemed normal, friendly enough, but…there was always something, there, behind her eyes, that betrayed the fact that she was just a _l__ittle bit cracked_-

He shooed the thought away. He didn't want to think about insanity. She had said it would come for him, but he would avoid it if he could. Lotti scared him still - possibly more than he scared her.

"So, _comrades_, we're sitting around a campfire and everything …you know what we should do?" Lotti said, to break the silence.

"What?"

"Sing!" Lotti said, grinning evilly. "You going to sing some songs for us, Rabbit Girl?"

"Can't sing," Alice snapped, poking the fire with a stick.

"Are you _sure?"_

"Yes."

"Absolutely positively _suuuure –"_

"Shut it, Baskerville."

She pouted. "Aww. I was looking forward to watching you make a fool of yourself."

Alice didn't deign to reply. She just stared at the pitiful fire that Lotti had managed to conjure up, legs drawn up to her chest.

Oz watched the two of them somewhat bemusedly. "What's all this business about singing?"

Lotti took out Leon's golden crown, and started twirling it around her hands. "Oh, nothing. Just trying to bring some _life _into this little…gathering? Thing."

Oz felt his face light up. "But you're right, Lotti!" he said excitedly. "That's exactly what we need to cheer us up. A song sing!"

"A ..singsong?"

"Yeah!"

"It wouldn't work, anyway."

"Why _not?"_

"Because the rabbit doesn't want to, I was only joking and you probably can't sing. And it's kind of weird, having a singsong with your enemy."

"Aren't I your friend?" Oz asked, looking hurt.

"What, you thought I was?" Lotti said irritably. "You're so _naïve_, Jack."

There were a few moments of silence, and then Oz spoke again, a kind of bitter smile on his face.

"Jack?" he said. "And we're the insane ones? _Really_?"

Lotti tucked a pink strand of hair behind her ear, just watching him.

More awkward silence. Oz fiddled with his pocket watch. "Why don't we tell stories, then? If you don't want to sing?" he said.

"Don't know any," Alice muttered sullenly.

"I do," Lotti said suddenly. "Leon once told me where he came from."

The two Chains looked up, startled.

"Don't you want to know?" she giggled. "He even told me his name – it was Leon Rainsworth!"

Oz dropped the watch. "_What?"_

"Oh, yeah," Lotti said. "He was a member of House Rainsworth. Long ago. Long before the fall of Sabrie. And he had these two brothers, whose names were Ernest and Andrew. He and Ernest were twins, but they fought a lot."

"He was…a person, before he was a Chain," Oz murmured.

"So were you both," Lotti said cuttingly, laughing when they flinched. "So, yeah, he said he and his brothers used to read this old picture book. He liked the lion best, 'cause it won. Ernest favoured the unicorn, said it _deserved_ to win."

She stared into the embers of the fire, for a moment, then caught herself and kept talking.

"So one day their father the Duke got sick, and then Leon and Ernest realised that one of them was going to be duke, and only one. And did I tell you Andrew was a clever little sneak? He got this crown off his dying father– " she held up the crown that she had been spinning in her hands – "and he inscribed the words on it, and of course Leon and Ernest fought over it..."

"What next?" Alice prodded, sounding surprisingly interested in the tale.

"Their father found out, he got mad, chucked the twins into Abyss with the crown for good measure," Lotti said. "Of course, Andrew the sneak was named heir. Leon and Ernest slowly mutated into Chains. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"So Leon became a lion Chain…and Ernest…became a unicorn?" Alice said slowly.

"Eques," Oz realised.

"Got it in one!" Lotti said cheerfully. "Eques always remained loyal to House Rainsworth, lucky him. But Leon eventually formed a contract with a young girl named Charlotte Baskerville." She grinned widely. "It was an experience for him….here, have a look." She tossed Oz the crown.

He tried putting it on. It didn't fit him, and despite the inscription, he didn't exactly feel like the Duke Rainsworth when he wore it. Maybe it was a dud.

"So, got any more stories?" he asked, removing the crown regretfully. "Alice?"

"Of course," she grumbled. "I'm just not telling them to the likes of you!"

"Oh, really?" Oz said innocently. "Or maybe… do you just not know any?"

"Shut up!" She stood, hands clenched into fists. "The fire's dying down – I'll get some wood, OK?"

She ran off.

"Wonder why she's so sensitive about not knowing any stories?" Lotti wondered.

"I shouldn't have said that," Oz muttered, frowning. "I guess it was a low blow…after all, she's lost her…" _Lost her memories…_

He trailed off into silence.

"Lost her what?" Lotti asked.

"Why should I tell you?" he said. "Like you said, you're not my friend. You're a Baskerville." He flicked open the golden pocket watch, and a tinkling, haunting melody instantly began to chime from it. Lotti froze.

"It's my duty as a member of House Bezarius to kill you," he said, and he smiled.

Lotti laughed, her grin wide and mirthless. "Things sure have changed...Jack." This time, Oz knew the use of the wrong name was deliberate. He felt suddenly intimidated by her. She was a Baskerville, and she was dangerous, and she had stabbed his friend and killed countless people – and killed – and killed and killed and killed -

"Jack," he said numbly. "You called me Jack again."

"Well, if you don't want me to," she spat, voice rising, "stop BEING HIM-!" And she whirled to her feet and slapped him in the face. He stood too, staggering slightly, clutching a hand to his cheek.

"My name," he hissed at her through clenched teeth, "is Oz."

"I DON'T CARE!" Lotti screamed, looking truly unhinged. "I don't CARE, I DON'T CARE, I DON'T CARE! SHUT UP!"

He scrambled backwards rapidly.

"You killed Glen," she yelled, eyes wild and frenzied. "You KILLED HIM, Jack! There's – " she pointed at his hands – "there's blood, right there – I'll never forgive you, NEVER!"

She backed Oz up against a tree, placing her hands on his shoulders, and shoving her face very close to his.

"No, I'm _not sane, _Jack Bezarius," she growled, hands fisting in his shirt. "You're fooled _far. Too. Easily." _She licked a trail up his cheek, and Oz realised she was licking off the dried blood there. Her tongue reached his lips – she smiled –

Breathing in short gasps, leaning away from her as best he could, he drew on his power – he was on the brink, the power sizzling through him. _Any second now -_

She kissed him properly then, which was a bit of a shock.

He stood stock still for a single, horrified moment. In that moment, there was a rough yell, and Lotti – _thank heavens – _was jerked roughly away from him, possibly by the hair, and thrown to the ground. It was Alice standing in front of him now, looking furious.

For some reason, the first words that popped out of his mouth were, "I can explain!"

"Explain _what_?" she said, pulling her scythe out of the air with a vicious, jerking movement, and slamming it uncomfortably close to Lotti's throat.

"It's not my fault!"

"When did I ever say it was?" The anger was replaced with confusion almost instantly. Her grip on the scythe slackened, causing Lotti to scramble back hurriedly. "Here, do you still want the Baskerville alive?" She made a face. "Can't think why you would."

Lotti got to her feet. The madness in her eyes had died down.

"I think she's alright now," Oz said softly. "C'mon. We have to get out of here."

Alice looked at him for a moment.

"Insanity," she said. "When I was in Abyss, it was always there…it was waiting. Just beyond…" The scythe vanished. "Just _there, _right at the corners of my mind. I don't think I ever gave in."

Oz took her hands in his.

"We're not going to give in, though," he said urgently. "We can't. We aren't going to…are we?"

"That's not my _point_," she said, jerking her hands from his grasp. "I think there's a chance you might be insane already." She glared at him, daring him to talk back.

"Mercy is not insanity," said Oz, utterly calm. He turned and began to walk away. "Let's go. We need to get out of here."

After a couple of seconds, Alice followed, with Lotti bringing up the rear.

xxx

_And they were getting along so well, too… alright, I admit it, I have this weird fondness for the crack pairing Lotti-Oz. Don't kill me! D: It just popped into my head when she licked up his cheek in episode something-or-other. But it _only works if it's **onesided**_, and if Lotti's having delusions of Oz being Jack._

_Cliches involving romantic couples and poor communication kill me because they're just too stupid._

_Yeah, I said I'd update in November. Never said _early _in November. Nice long chapter, though._

_This chapter is pivotal in terms of plot. There's a lot of information here. _

_Go check out WolfspiritSD's drawing of Lion Oz! Remove the spaces:_

h t t p : / / wolfspiritsd. deviantart. com /art/ Halloween- Chain-Oz-184296452


	10. count the seconds

**CHAPTER TEN**

Time didn't _quite_ work right in Abyss. Long, distended minutes stretched into the distance, followed by short, sharp hours that seemed to flash by in a rush. Eventually, you stopped trying to measure time at all, and that was when you succumbed to it and your humanity was gone, like _that._

Alice kept counting. She didn't know how long it had been. She couldn't tell. But she tried to count. She tried.

There were times when the Chains remembered what they had lost to the dark waters of Abyss, to the white goddess at its heart. They cried together, shrieked, wailed into the blackness, and Alice would shut her eyes and feel the water soaking through her boots, and if she listened right, the wailing sounded just like singing.

She kept counting time through the song.

After a while it was even beautiful, a soaring crescendo of wailing notes, human voices long lost to beasthood and madness shining in the dark. All alone, with nothing but the lapping water and the night and the uneven beat of time, this was how she remembered she was sane.

It took an awfully long time for her to crack. When she heard the first strains of music floating down from the light above, real, melodious music, _calling her_, she lost the beat of time that had been going in her head, and she could no longer hear the singing of the Chains – just screaming.

She had found Oz, then. And she had saved him. And he had saved her. And they had gone together into the light and the silence.

xxx

This is how you keep your humanity. Not through petty fights and staring into the endless dark. Through _human_ things – music, and beauty, and time.

Alice wished now that she could hear the song of Abyss. But they were in the light, now, and it was dark and cold and hungry, and silent. At least there were stars in the sky. She massaged her temples, trying to relieve the presssure in her skull, like a headache but worse.

They were in the capital, Sabrie – no – it was Leverru now, so it was. Sabrie was far away and long since gone. One hundred years. She had spent them in Abyss. Time moved strangely there, but it was one hundred years all the same.

Her memories shrilled and called out to her – she could hear them almost! Couldn't the others hear them? But they weren't there. Not there. She had no memories, just fading impressions of a dead city.

"I'm hungry," Oz said. "I mean, we've got cloaks, now, but you can't eat cloaks."

"Shut up," Lotti sniped. "Where do you suggest getting any food, the garbage?"

How strange that an insane, grieving, time-travelling murderer, with pink hair of all things, seemed to be the one in charge. An insane, grieving, time-travelling murderer with pink hair who had...kissed Oz. That had been a strange thing to witness indeed.

When it had happened, she had felt a dull anger, a possessiveness somewhere inside her, that had not ignited any kind of unstoppable rage, like she felt maybe it should have, but simply added to the thick weight pressing down on her. She had felt that thing – jealousy – but it had not caught alight, it had not consumed her. That was odd, somehow.

The pressure on her head. It was like…like swimming. Whenever she swam too deep (she had gone swimming before, back then, in the days of the dead city), she could feel it, all that water pushing down on her, and her ears began to ring and pain would shoot through her head like needles.

Right now, it was not water pressing down on her, but the sheer power she knew she possessed. It had always been with her, this feeling. After all, she had always been B-Rabbit. But it had never never been so so so _like this, _dulling her emotions and constantly throbbing, throbbing_._

It just kept growing and growing, and growing, every flicker of rage or need or despair just adding to it, and she was _dying _to let it loose, all that power! And she knew she- she knew she could – there was no limiter, now, nothing to restrain her. All that power and it was hers. Hers.

She clenched her fist. She was not afraid! She was not holding it back because she was afraid of the power she held.

Then why?

She began to tremble. Shiver. Shake.

"Look, we need to eat," Oz was saying. "I'm really hungry. C'mon, we're wearing cloaks, if we do it right we can maybe get some food from a stall or something. I'm sick of this alley. It stinks."

"Whiny brat," Lotti muttered.

He was always talking to Lotti, now. He had insisted Alice spare the Baskerville's life. She had kissed him.

But he hadn't exactly thanked her for it, had he? And Alice was so quiet now, and all he ever did with the Baskerville was argue. She pushed the feelings down, and concentrated on keeping the power back.

"Let's go," she said.

Oz's face lit up. "Yay!"

They crept out of the dark alleyway into the main street, Oz and Lotti leading the way, Alice trailing behind. People seemed to be rushing by quite quickly, Alice noticed vaguely, and they were casting worried looks in all directions. There was a faint roaring sound coming from the city centre.

"How are we going to pay?" Lotti hissed. "I don't want to draw attention to us!"

Oz shrugged.

"You don't care?"

He shrugged again. "Are you good at stealing things?"

"No! I was raised in a respectable house!"

Alice vaguely noted that Oz didn't seem to raise any objection to this. Respectable, huh? Even what with the mass murder and creepy devotion to her insane lord?

"Yep. So was I. Okay, we might have a bit of a problem."

"Do you see the flaw in the plan, now?"

"Would you rather we starved to death? I know Alice wouldn't want that. Alice?"

"No," she said mechanically.

Oz frowned under his hood, stopping dead. They had reached the city square, which was packed with stalls and shoppers. It was packed – Market Day in Leverru was always a busy time, according to Oz, and they had walked right into it."Alice? Is there something wrong?"

"Let's keep walking," she said.

"No. Alice, you haven't exactly been your usual self lately."

"Neither have you," she retorted weakly, but truthfully.

"You haven't blown up at anything in anger. You haven't…I dunno, killed Lotti or anything."

"You asked me not to."

"Since when do you listen to what I have to say?"

"Since now." She folded her arms.

"I'd like to just say thanks for that," Lotti interjected. Oz pushed back his hood some more and shot her a look.

"Alice…I don't understand," he muttered. "We're partners. Contractors. I'm your..thingo."

"Manservant."

"Yeah. But you…you're trying to hide something from me." His green eyes flashed, showing a hard edge, and she flinched back.

"Oz," she whispered.

"Don't – don't _whisper!" _he snapped, taking a step forward. "That's WRONG. That's not YOU. You're acting _wrong, _Alice, you're too calm – too - you're _hiding something, _Alice, don't _lie _to me."

"I'm – I'm not hiding-"

"LIAR!" he snarled. "LIAR!"

Oz's shoulders were shaking, his eyes were narrowed, his teeth bared. For some reason they hadn't drawn any attention from the passers-by, who seemed to be rather interested in something across the square.

"Can you feel it, then?" she asked dreamily. "Like you're drowning, in deep water."

"This is all very interesting," Lotti broke in, "but we need to figure out how we're going to get some food – "

"Do we need to figure it out?" Alice said in the same tone, turning to Lotti and fixing her with a vaguely interested stare. "Can't we just take what we want?"

"No, that's called stealing. Stealing is against the law. You wouldn't want someone to steal your handbag or your carriage," Lotti said slowly, gesturing like she was talking to a small child. "So it's wrong to steal something that someone else-"

"Murder is against the law," Alice said. "Since when do you care about the law?"

Lotti laughed harshly. "She's good." She turned to Oz. "I won't have you shouting at her, boy. We can't draw attention to ourselves. In case you'd forgotten, all three of us are wanted by Pandora and if we want to get food we're going to have to do it the smart way."

"Look over there," Oz said suddenly. "What's going on over there?"

They looked. The screaming should have clued them in, really, but it was a _very _crowded square.

Two Chains. One had a grotesque resemblance to a flamingo, the other a deformed kind of turtle, which bellowed and sent bowls of soup from a soup stall flying everywhere.

"Chains," Alice said.

"And what's the betting," Lotti said grimly, "that they're in a contract with each other?"

Oz looked at her sharply. "You don't mean –"

"Yes. I think the Unicorn happened."

"Look at them," Alice said. "They're not scared or afraid. They're happy. They're… using their power."

People around them were struggling. Fighting to get out of the square, get away from here. Only the three of them remained stock still, staring, the two Chains and the Baskerville.

"There's probably more," Oz said.

"There's probably _lots_ more. The Unicorn doesn't do things by halves."

"But Pandora will catch them, right?"

"What makes you think that? They haven't caught _us _yet, for crying out loud, and we're standing right here!"

Oz went white.

"Don't be such a pussycat. Well, you are a pussycat, being, aha, B-Lion. Still. What are you looking at?"

"Gil," Oz said, pointing. "He's right over there."

So he was.

"Well, he's probably occupied by that…thing that's happening over there," Lotti said brightly. "There's time. Let's just get the hell out of here -"

"They're just," Alice said. "Taking. What they. Want."

Oz turned to look at her. "Alice?" He frowned. She was pale and shaking, and her eyes were closed. "What's wrong?"

Her fists clenched and unclenched. "I – " she shuddered, gulped, moaned. "I'm scared –"

"Alice!" he said, seizing her hands. "I'm – I'm sorry I shouted at you, I don't know what came over me – please, what's wrong? What's going on?"

"The power," she said, looking straight up at him. "Can't you feel it?"

"Yes!" he said wildly. "Of course I can!"

"I can't hold on," she whispered. "I can't –"

Oz took her face in his hands, threaded his fingers in her hair. "Please, Alice -" and he did not know what he was pleading for.

"GET OFF ME!" she shrieked, stumbling backwards, slapping his hands away. "Get AWAY!"

"Get away, Oz," Lotti said suddenly.

"No –"

"GET DOWN!" She dragged him down to the pavement.

They were just taking, ruining, hurting. Those Chains. They were _using _their power. And Alice had the power to do anything she wanted. Anything at all. Anything she chose. No limiter, no Gil or Oz or Pandora. She had the means and the motive and the question was _why was she holding all this power back? _

She let it loose.

xxx

Alice gave a tiny gasp, and something changed in her eyes. Her body stiffened strangely. For just a fraction of a second, the sky was calm and the city seemed to freeze, to remain absolutely still –

And then she was B-Rabbit, and the whole city shrieked in pain. The two Chains dissolved into dust. Waves of invisible energy thundered through her like the seas of Abyss, raging out of her and rolling out through the city. The people of Leverru screamed. Their buildings crumbled, their carthorses and songbirds and lapdogs wailed and yowled and perished, the fires went out of the lamps.

Oz called to her, desperately, reaching out for her, but he couldn't even hear his own voice. Lotti hauled him away. He turned to her, shouted obscenities and insults and threats that neither could hear over the lightning and the screaming and the raging wind.

Let me go! Take me back! Let me go to her - I can stop her –

A blast of energy knocked him down, and Lotti grabbed his arm and tried to drag him farther. He became the lion, and snarled at her. _I could kill you right now. _The sharp ends of his clock-hand-swords hovered dangerously close to her throat.

And then she'd kill you, Lotti replied. You can't go to her.

I will! I have to! She's my _partner- _

A huge crash next to them startled them out of their argument. A huge block of stone from Parliament House. If it had been a fraction closer, it would have crushed them.

Lotti knelt and shouted into his ear. "If we stay here, we'll both be killed."

"Do you hear me? I'M NOT LEAVING HER!"

Lotti's face went curiously calm. She reached behind her to grasp something.

"What are you –"

She brought the rock down on Oz's head, and he collapsed, senseless, a boy again. They'd both gone without food for a while, so while he was light, she was quite weak. She grabbed a stray loaf of bread that had escaped obliteration, and scarfed it down while dragging Oz and pretty much focusing on getting the hell out of there.

The storm raged on, and the city screamed.

xxx

So this was the true extent of the power held by a Chain contracted to another Chain. And it wasn't just any Chain. This was _Alice._

Stupid _rabbit._

Gil stepped forward, breathing hard, his hair whipped around his face by the ceaseless wind. Bodies and rubble littered the streets.

He hadn't made a sound, but B-Rabbit turned her head around to glare at him with slitted, soulless red eyes.

"Salutations, Rabbit," he said. "My name is Gilbert Nightray."

The wind calmed, and the world was deathly silent.

"Gil?" the rabbit said, sounding confused. It dropped to the ground, and became Alice the girl. "The power's still there," she said, sounding close to tears. "All that and it's _still there!"_

Gil gritted his teeth. "Alice…I'm sorry." He raised his gun.

"Gil…" she said again.

"Alice, do you realise what you've done?" he cried out, flinging out an arm to gesture at the destruction around them. "You've destroyed Leverru! Look at all the people – _dead. _You killed them!"

"Where's Oz?" she asked in a cracked voice.

"I wish I knew," Gil whispered.

"He didn't stay – ?"

He lunged forward and cracked her over the head with his gun. She folded to the ground in an instant.

"You are the Chain B-Rabbit, contracted to the Chain Oz," he said aloud. "I am in charge of the expedition –" he reached down and picked her up, then slung her over his shoulder, " – with the intent to apprehend you and remove you to Pandora headquarters."

He picked his way through the rubble of the city.

"Or, what's left of them," he added as an afterthought.

xxx

The Unicorn laughed in glee and drank up the chaos and ripped open the throats of a small farming household and lapped up their blood and it was very, very good.

xxx

It turned out that the Pandora building was mostly intact, due to the concerted efforts of the staff inside. Gil hauled Alice inside, trying to be as gentle as possible.

Break met him in the front hall. "Ahh, Raven!" he crowed. "You've got hold of B-Rabbit, then? I assume we can blame her for this…mess."

Gil nodded curtly. "Be gentle with her."

Break's face suddenly became hard as stone. "Give me one reason why I should."

"Because I believe she and Oz are innocent," Gil said. "I really do. I don't think Oz is capable of doing that to Sharon –"

"B-Rabbit just levelled the whole town," Break said.

"Not all of it," Gil said defensively, "or we wouldn't be standing here."

An agent came up, saluted, and took Alice from Gil's arms. She looked quite vulnerable, Gil thought.

"Put her in a human cell, not a Chain cell," he ordered the agent. "I'll question her myself."

"Yes, sir!"

Gil turned back, to find Break giving him an unreadable look with his single scarlet eye.

"Perhaps you'll prove me wrong," he said. "That would be _so _much fun."

xxx

Sharon jerked in surprise, spilling a little tea on the coverlet. She carefully set down the teacup and then she simply marvelled.

It was so simple, so neat, so obvious! She ran her eyes once more over the picture book. Eques had told her once that when he had been human, he enjoyed reading this book, and it was the reason he was a unicorn shape now.

So if we connect the dots, if we go by the rhyme-

_The lion beat the unicorn all round the town…_

Then –

Lotti Baskerville, she thought. Her Chain was a lion. And according to Break, they were searching for the culprits, the ones who had nearly killed her. They were searching for Lotti Baskerville. And for Leon.

_What if Leon could beat the Unicorn?_

She grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and began to write.

xxx

The Dark Unicorn stepped onto the paved city centre, and looked around. Warm blood dripped from its mouth.

It could feel power flowing into it – oh, so much power. The chaos, the blood and death and misery of this place was like adrenalin, like electricity in its veins. It grinned and called out to the Chains of the ruins of Leverru. They rallied to its cry, and soon enough it was surrounded by a silent army of Chains. Roughly half of them had been human very recently indeed.

That B-Rabbit _had _been a good catch. Yes. The Unicorn would have so much to eat!

GO ON, HAVE FUN, it said. CAUSE SOME CHAOS. The Chains scattered.

And let them try to hurt it. Pandora, B-Rabbit, the Baskervilles...let them just try. For every wound and scar they tried to mar the Unicorn with, it would repay them back threefold and laugh as they screamed. Any Chain that attacked the Unicorn would fade into dust. And, if it should be so unfortunate, then the one who finally killed the Unicorn would be dragged into death right along with it.

A word occurred to it. A name long forgotten, a name that meant something. Something precious.

SARAH, it whispered. MY SARAH. I DID THIS FOR YOU.

And the Unicorn grinned.

xxx

_Woop, a 3,000 word chapter! Sorry about the wait, there. We've still got a fair bit to go, but this story is definitely closer to being finished than it was. _

_Til next time!_


	11. fall to ruin

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

Alice woke to find herself lying on a hard, narrow cot, staring at a whitewashed stone ceiling.

She sat up and looked around, frowning. She seemed to be in a cell of some kind, empty except for the cot she was sitting on and a bucket in the corner. She wrinkled her nose and massaged her temples. The painful pressure in her head was back.

"Idiots," she muttered to herself. "Imbeciles. Locking me up. Shouldn't have even…_tried…"_

Staggering across the room, she found that the cell was partitioned. She only had one half to herself, cramped and uncomfortable, for the other half was blocked off by a wall of iron bars. There was a chair on the other side of the cell, a lamp, and a secure looking door.

She was shot through with sudden rage. How dare they even TRY to keep her contained with iron bars? PITIFUL!They would regret locking her up, if it was the last thing they felt...whoever 'they' was…

There was some writing on the door. 'PANDORA', it said.

Ah. _Gil._ He must have knocked her out and brought her here. HE WOULD PAY. She slammed her fist against the stone wall.

She grabbed the iron bars and attempted to wrench them apart, but was met with searing pain and an utter unwillingness to budge. She yelped and withdrew her hands quickly. The bars glowed red for a second , then faded back to normal.

So. The cell was protected, with powerful seals and enchantments. She was going to have to be clever about this one. Oz was probably locked up in one of these rooms too. _Don't think about the pink one. We can just leave her here. _She'd have to get out of here herself before she could rescue him.

Alice turned away from the bars – the very sight of them was starting to infuriate her – and began to pace, keeping her head down, thinking deep thoughts, and trying to come up with a plan. It was pretty damned hard, though.

Exactly one thousand two hundred and fourteen seconds later, the door opened and closed behind someone, and she whipped around.

It was Gil.

She screamed like an animal and flew at him, slamming the bars again and again with her bare fists. Pain shuddered through her, and numerous bruises and burns blossomed onto her skin, but she ignored them completely. Flecks of foam collected on her cheeks and her crazed eyes _burned _and she gnawed on the bars like a wild thing.

Gil sat down on the chair and waited for her to finish.

"I placed you in one of the most luxurious cells here," he told her once he had a bit of a gap of silence in which to speak. "The cells for Chains, like the one the Dark Unicorn was in, are just empty rooms. They aren't even lit. This is a human cell."

"Thanks for the _honour," _Alice growled, wiping her face.

"No one here thinks you deserve it," said Gil. "They want you dead."

"And what makes _me_ so special?"

"You're B-Rabbit," he said. "You're contracted to _Oz. _You're one of the most human Chains Pandora's ever encountered."

"There's a lot of Chains around now that were humans very recently."

"For the record," Gil said, "I don't think you deserve it either. But Oz is still my master. I believe that you and he never attacked Sharon. I _have_ to keep believing that." His fists clenched. "And that means I have to do the best I can for him. He cares about you, Alice. And no one's on your side right now. So, I will be. For him."

"I don't need your pity," she snarled.

"I wasn't offering it," he snapped back. "Listen, Alice, don't you realise what you've DONE?"

She crossed her arms.

Gil sighed. "We might as well keep things simple. Alright. Tell me who attacked Sharon Rainsworth."

"Easy. Lotti Baskerville and that Chain of hers," she said, yawning.

Gil snorted. "I can't wait to tell Break." He took out a notepad and began jotting things down. "Lotti Baskerville…her Chain is Leon, right? The shape of a lion?"

"Yeah. It's dead now. Gil, will you please let me out of here so I can kill you?"

"In a minute…so, you and Oz are completely innocent of the crime of assaulting the Lady Sharon?"

"Yes," she grumbled. "How do you know I'm telling the truth, though?"

"Truth enchantment on that side of the cell," Gil said absently. "Alright…done."

"_Now _can I kill you?"

"Why do you want to kill me so much?" he asked calmly.

"You _knocked me out and locked me up!"_

Gil let out a strangled laugh. She eyed him suspiciously.

"I don't know how I can laugh," he said, his voice shaking, his head falling into his hands. "It's just…so...huge. It's horrible. I can't …can't comprehend…look, you've jumped out of one fix and into a much bigger one. It's not about Sharon anymore. It's about the whole city."

"_Explain_._"_

"The city of Leverru is burning," Gil said abruptly. "All of the buildings are ruined except for this one. Powerful Chains roam the animals are dead. Those who aren't dead or horrifically injured are starving to death or fleeing, having lost everything. The staff of Pandora have abandoned all other missions, regardless of importance, and have returned to headquarters to…to…we don't know what. The city is dying."

Alice sat back down on the cot. Her eyes were blank with shock and horror.

"The Unicorn," she growled.

"No," Gil said, and then he stood up, the chair falling to the ground. "_You."_

"What –"

" B-Rabbit. _You did this." _His face was twisted in anger. " Alice, YOU DID THIS! They're already calling it the Tragedy of Leverru, and guess what, you _stupid_ rabbit? YOU CAUSED IT! One hundred years later, it happens again, and _everybody dies." _

He turned away, and his shoulders beginning to shake.

"And where am I in all this?" he whispered. "Giving you a nice cell and _defending_ you. I can't…I need…I don't want Oz to be angry…"

"You're disgusting," Alice said, emotionless.

"I know. I know."

He left.

She just sat back and watched the seconds pass her by. Tick. Tick. Tick. Oz was not here. He was somewhere else. He was coming. He was going. He was coming. He was coming for her, and she was certain of this. The ruined city would have its revenge. It would drag her down into Abyss, and it would laugh at her, and the Unicorn would prance among the bleached bones of the city and it would grin.

Oz was coming for her.

Alice began to cry.

xxx

_Break – have you captured Lotti Baskerville yet? I think her Chain might be the key to killing the Unicorn for good. Do you see? A lion. A lion to defeat the Unicorn. It might just work. _

The note lay discarded on Sharon's bedside table. Her knuckles were clenched and white on a new missive.

_Lady Sharon Rainsworth – _

_Leverru has been destroyed by B-Rabbit. Oz is nowhere to be found. It appears that Pandora has been laboring under the misapprehension that they were the ones who attacked you. All Pandora missions have been called off. It's being called the Tragedy of Leverru, or the Second Tragedy. _

_Alice says that Leon, Charlotte Baskerville's Chain, is dead, if that is any comfort._

_Break is very busy, but I'm sure he'll visit you again when time allows._

_- Gilbert Nightray_

She was asleep by the time Break entered. He walked to the bedside table quietly, read the unfinished note in Sharon's handwriting, nodded to himself, and left without a word.

xxx

"Promise me you won't kill anything," Lotti said as Oz opened his eyes. His head ached, and he felt bruised all over. His clothes were sticky with mud.

"What? What?" he yelped, scrabbling around for a weapon. "What is it?"

"You're not going to kill me, then…? Good. Have some food." She handed him a loaf of bread, an apple and a raw fish. "Here. Cook it yourself if you want it cooked."

The fish smelt slightly off, the apple was bruised and the bread was charred, crushed and kind of stale. He gulped it all down anyway, starving. Only then did he look around.

They were sitting next to a stream on a wooded hill, sloping down towards Leverru. The stream trickled downwards towards the main river and the city.

"I had to drag you all the way up here," Lotti said. "Believe me, it wasn't easy. After that I was too tired to build a fire, so the fish is raw. Still, it's good food. Shame the marketplace is ruined now. Here, have another apple."

"The city," Oz whispered. "Leverru…"

It was crushed, ruined, burning. He could smell smoke and panic and death.

"Yes. Courtesy of your friend B-Rabbit, if you remember," Lotti sighed, plucking at her corset. "Y'know, I'm going to have to do something about this…"

"Alice," Oz said.

A fleeting expression of dread crossed Lotti's face. "What?"

"_Alice,_" Oz said. "Where is she?"

"Where…where we left her, I suppose…"

Oz snarled a lion's snarl. He spread his wings, and unsheathed his claws, sharp as razors.

"Tell me where she is," he said, his voice shaking. "Tell me where you're _hiding her."_

"She's still down in the city! I'm sorry!" Lotti said wildly. "We had to leave her there, she was wrecking the place – she would have killed us too –"

"LIAR!" Oz sent her flying with a swipe of his paw, and sent his clock-swords to hover over her, close to her throat. "You're LYING to me!" He strode closer, fists clenched, his eyes burning. "Give. Her. BACK."

"I don't _have _her –"

"ALICE!" he screamed, flicking from boy to lion, boy to lion, there and back until Lotti couldn't tell which was which. "ALICE! ALICE!" The clock-sword jabbed closer, drawing a bead of blood. She took several shaky, gasping breaths, attempting to shuffle away.

He stepped on her hand, grinding it into the mud. "Do you even _realise, _do you have _any _comprehension of the power I have right here? _I could kill you like _that._"_ He clicked his fingers.

"I –"

"SHUT UP!" Oz slapped her viciously, then slashed his claws across her arm, drawing blood. "Shut _up, _you – "

Something in Lotti snapped.

"Oz Bezarius," Lotti told him, her voice clear and bright and furious, "if you want her, _go and find her."_

He paused. Staggered. Took a step back. His face was stricken, pale.

"Go on. Don't let me keep you. Worthless old _liar_, me."

He shook his head, disbelieving. "I'm – I'm sorry –"

"GO."

He backed away, then broke into a run. Lotti watched him go.

Once he was a fair distance away from her, she sighed and stood, then gathered up the last of the food and went to follow him, down into the fire and wreckage and the army of Chains.

It wasn't like she had anywhere else to go, after all.

xxx

_It'll get better, I promise! ;_; _

_Hey, did you read chapter 57 of the manga? It was so epic! I can't believe *spoiler* and OMG *spoiler* SERIOUSLY MOCHIJUN WHYYY, DOCTOR WHO HAS SCREWED MY BRAIN OVER ENOUGH AS IT IS, PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON MY TIRED MIND. So if you haven't read it, then go read it. Double thumbs up to Jun Mochizuki!_


	12. bring the dark

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

Alice kicked the wall, ignoring the sharp pain that shuddered down her toes. It didn't budge at all. She had discovered that all four walls of the cell were sealed like those bars, preventing her from using her power to get out. At least she could think straight now that her headache had lessened.

She sniffled a little more, then decided she'd had enough of crying, and wiped her face with the back of her hand. How was she going to get out of here? She couldn't _stand_ it. This place, Pandora, the knowledge of her own guilt, the power she contained - it was all crushing down on her and she wanted nothing more than to be in control. Wasn't there some way out, some escape route – some way to escape what she had done…

She kicked the wall again. Oz was coming for her. If he'd gone, then he would come back. He would get her out of here, when he came.

She hoped he wouldn't come. If he came for her, if he saw with his own eyes what she had done – she felt something new at that. Something strange. Shame, shame and guilt. Alice felt…_ashamed…_

_The city screamed – the Second Tragedy…._

She didn't want Oz to see what she had done, see her weakness. She wanted to lie, conceal her deed away. The feeling was unfamiliar.

Shameful…

Alice gritted her teeth and forced down a scream of rage and frustration. This was _stupid STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID. _Why had she fainted after using the power? _How_ could she have been so weak as to let Gil capture her? The walls of her prison seemed to press down on her, stifling. She made a decision.

Well. If she wasn't going to be rescued by Oz, she had better do it herself. Time to take an inventory: bed, chained to the wall. Bucket. Bars. Four walls, one blocked off by the bars.

No chinks in the armour…

Wait. She had missed some things. Four walls. Ceiling. Floor.

Floor. The _floor_, the very ground beneath her feet –

The human cells…there was a floor below her, wasn't there?

Alice bent down and laid her cheek to the floor, and listened. Then she slowly grinned a grin that was very wide and very full of teeth, and concentrated.

They had enchanted the walls, but had forgotten the floor - the _fools_. She laughed and laughed as the scythe burst into her hand, and it felt like holding fire. It crawled up her hand, blisteringly hot, shivered and trembled and hummed. The power roared through her veins but she held it back – she could not let it go, not yet…she clenched it tighter and the power burned her, surged through her like a wave, but she would not destroy the last of Leverru. She would hold on to _this one thing._

She slashed the floor, lines of fire blazing through her vision, and as it collapsed beneath her she closed her eyes and pretended she was flying.

xxx

"Well, well, well," Break purred. "What have we _here?" _He prodded Alice's arm with his cane.

She just shot a condescending smirk at him from amongst the wreckage. "Who's the one about to _die, _you idiot clown?" She had landed on her feet. The huge scythe dangled effortlessly from her slim, gloved hand.

Gil swallowed, eyes flicking up to the ceiling, which there was less of than there had been ten seconds ago. Then down to Alice, covered in plaster and stone dust, but not a scratch on her.

Her eyes glowed dark and fierce, and her scythe was too bright to look at. He could feel the power radiating from her. She was too dangerous – like a bomb about to go off, and if she succumbed to the power like she had just hours ago, Leverru would –

Break poked her again. She snarled at him, and she was the hulking black rabbit, looming over them like a shadow. The bedraggled Pandora agents behind them raised their guns.

Gil gritted his teeth. "Break? Could you _please _stop doing that?"

"…What, this?" His face twisted into a smile that looked like it had shattered on the ground and then haphazardly stuck back together. Again, he reached the cane forward.

"Break, STOP -"

He twirled the cane effortlessly, and brought it crashing down on the ground. Purple light surged out from it, surrounding Alice with an enchanted circle and preventing her from moving.

She just flicked her hair back, snickering. "Is that _it? _Really?"

Break tapped the side of his nose. "Indeed. I have no doubt that you would be able to break free of that cage in an instant, if you wanted to." 

"Of course!" Alice snapped. She folded her arms across her chest, the scythe gracefully angling downward. Gil took a small step back. "Do you have _any idea _of the power –"

"Of course I do," Break said. "The evidence is just outside, as I'm sure you're aware." He tapped the cane on the floor again. The Pandora agents cocked their guns.

Alice's face coloured. "I – "

"You could break free of this enchantment any time you choose," Break said calmly. "Why haven't you?"

"Shut up, you –"

"You're a very honest young lady, Miss Alice," Break said. "So you didn't hurt Sharon, after all. That's the truth. However, you and Oz _did_ leave Pandora without so much as a goodbye or even a small lead. No word on what had happened. _We were left to guess. _And honestly, you thought you could catch that Baskerville by yourself?" He snorted, fingers clenching on the cane. "From what I've heard, you ended up _allying _yourselves with her! You've got quite a bit to make up for...oooh, and what else is on your pile of shame, I wonder?" His blood red eye was as cold and unforgiving as stone. "Oh, yes, that's right. _You destroyed Leverru."_

"Don't talk like you're not a mass murderer yourself," Alice snarled. "And this – it wasn't my fault! The Unicorn – "

"Oh, yes, the Unicorn. That. B-Rabbit, would you like to know a secret?"

He leaned forward, very close. Gil clenched his gun.

"_You let it out," _Break whispered, his face split into a toothy smile.

And she had. She really had. It had been her idea. It was her fault. Everything had gone wrong because of her. Oz was a Chain because of her. She had let it out.

Alice wailed and dropped to her knees. The scythe vanished.

"I – I –" she choked.

"Ah, and _now _we know why you aren't escaping from this new trap," Break went on, implacable. "It's not that you can't. _You don't want to. _You're a very honest young lady, Miss Alice. Shall I tell you what the Council has advised that we do with you?"

She shook with silent sobs. Gil was frozen with fear, all of a sudden. He knew what the council would say. He knew –

Oh, _Oz –_

Gil groaned and put his face in his hands. All his efforts had been in vain.

"Elimination," Break said. "You're to die. If we can manage it, of course. The Unicorn was merely imprisoned, killing it was far too dangerous an operation…though I see now it was a mistake not to ensure that it perished…"

"I'm to die," Alice whispered.

"Do you think you deserve it?" _You're a very honest girl._

She surveyed him with an ice-cold eye. "Yes, I deserve it. I can admit it. I may be a mass murderer, but at least I'm _honest_, Break. Unlike you."

"Oz is next on the list," Break added, not seeming to have registered her words. "Well. I trust you'll submit to Pandora's authority, then?"

"…Yes."

"Then my work here is done." Break took a step back. "You should never have allied yourself with the one who took Sharon's voice, you realise."

"She didn't seem so bad," Alice said. "If she wasn't a Baskerville, you know…"

"Say that again," Break said pleasantly.

Gil sidled up to him. "Break –"

"We're going through with this. Alice is to be executed in what's left of the town square." 

"Why? That's not exactly tradition…"

"You'll see." Break turned away, and Gil thought he saw the ruthless expression on his face falter, just for a moment.

"The last of the weak scouting Chains say that Oz is coming," he said. "The Unicorn - well. You'll see. This…this will be interesting, I should think."

And Alice stood, cold and proud and deserving, her gaze as piercing as a blade, and she never faltered once as she went like a lamb to the slaughter – or a rabbit, perhaps.

xxx

Oz stumbled through the ruined streets, gasping for breath and wishing he'd eaten more before leaving Lotti behind. Alice was probably being held at Pandora headquarters, if he was any judge. And he would get her out. He shook off his guilt, and thoughts of Lotti's furious face – he had no time to think of her. He would get Alice out. He would get her back.

He vaguely recognised this tiny alleyway. The town square was just through here, right? He began to lope on four paws, skin itching and prickling with the urge to release his power (to rip – tear – kill –)

Save it, he told himself. Save it for the Unicorn.

He swerved to the left. The square was just through here, he remembered. He could hear voices, panicked, angry. He could feel Alice. He could feel the Unicorn. (It's here -)

He stepped into the square.

A crowd of ragged people stood around the edges of the square, some trembling, some crying, some with a dead look in their eyes. A group of Pandora staff clustered at the far end. Sharon was there, supported by two agents. Her neck was bandaged heavily. Her face was pale. Alice was among them (and his heart sang). He could see her – they were leaving her a rather wide berth. She stood alone but for Break and Gil.

In the centre of the square was the Dark Unicorn. It stood and it watched him and grinned.

He walked towards it.

ARE YOU HERE TO KILL ME? it asked mockingly. I ADVISE YOU NOT TO TRY. REALLY.

He couldn't, he knew, though he wanted to. So very much.

HE WILL EXECUTE HER, it said, nodding its skeletal head towards Break. AND SHE WILL DIE.

Oz clenched his fists. Alice stared at a point somewhere past him. He tried to catch her eye but she wouldn't look at him.

THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE FOR ME. I AM UNSTOPPABLE NOW, YOU KNOW. It looked around at the broken buildings, the ragged people with shadows under their eyes. I FEED ON THE CHAOS. I GAIN POWER FROM THE MISERY YOU HAVE CAUSED…THAT B-RABBIT CAUSED…

"It's your fault!" Oz shouted. "You changed me into a Chain, you –"

_YOU_ LET ME OUT.

(no excuses)

"I'll kill you," he snarled. "I'll kill you. I'll kill you. I'll kill you –"

IT IS NOT MY FAULT.

"You _can't say –"_

YOU DRAW YOUR POWER FROM B-RABBIT, AND B-RABBIT DRAWS HER POWER FROM YOU, OZ BEZARIUS. ILLEGAL CONTRACTOR. IT IS YOUR FAULT.

Oz dropped to his knees.

THE LADY RAINSWORTH THINKS YOU COULD KILL ME. THE LION AND THE UNICORN FOUGHT FOR THE CROWN. THE LION BEAT THE UNICORN ALL AROUND TOWN...HOWEVER, I DO NOT CARE TO TEST THE THEORY. It turned to look at Alice. MEANWHILE, B-RABBIT IS TO BE EXECUTED. I THINK YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAVE HER NOW. GET UP.

"How do you know the rhyme?"

WHAT? It turned its hollow gaze down on him. DID YOU HEAR ME? SAVE HER!

"Save her yourself," said Oz.

ARE YOU PLAYING GAMES, BOY?

"No. You can't…or you won't. You want…you want me to make death for you. You want…_chaos_ from me and Alice. You want us to fight." (blood drip drip drip darkly down her throat)

…IT IS YOUR FAULT. YOUR FAULT. BOY, YOU ARE GUILTY. YOU ARE GUILTY!

Oz smiled. "Oh. I see. You're trying to make me go mad from the revelation. (aren't you?) Well. Too _late_."

SO FIGHT. SAVE HER.

Oz shook his head. "I won't."

Break's eyes gleamed. "_Very _interesting," he said under his breath.

SHE WILL DIE. SHE WILL _DIE! _HOW COULD YOU – HOW COULD – THE ONE YOU LOVE, YOUR PRECIOUS ONE, YOU COULD LET HER DIE? The Unicorn's voice rose to a grating screech. (almost like it cared) FIGHT! DO IT!

Oz raised his head, and said, "No."

(alice was crying, he could hear. it sounded like a song)

The Unicorn tossed its mane, and its claws flexed, and the stitches curled back from its mouth to reveal rows of jagged teeth.

THEN DIE. DIE. _DIE. _

(I'm going to die, Alice. Don't worry. I'm doing it for you.)

(Don't worry. When I die, you'll be free.)

_AND B-RABBIT DRAWS HER POWER FROM YOU – the contract between two Chains, increases their power – _

_Break the contract_

(You'll be free.)

Alice reached out. "No –"

"Oz! What – what are you doing –" He heard pounding footsteps, heaving breath. Lotti. She had come for him…

"Stay out of this," he told her without looking around. The Unicorn barely gave her a glance. It was stalking forward, its claws clicking on the cobblestones.

Alice tried to make a break for it, but the agents held her back.

Lotti clutched Oz's arm. "You idiot! I can't believe this!"

Oz shook her off. The Unicorn leaned over him, he could feel its clammy breath, hear its rapid heartbeat echoing in its deadlike chest.

He felt quite numb. Like he didn't care. He was going to die.

(then die)

"Alice," he murmured.

Lotti pushed him back. "No. Don't you _dare._" She stood in front of him, her pink hair mussed, her feet bruised, her clothes ripped and torn, and her eyes glaring up at the Unicorn with all the strength and bravery of a lion.

It raised its claws to sweep her aside, to tear Oz apart –

She lunged forward and grasped its neck, staring right into its blank eyes, those rows of evil teeth.

"Dark Unicorn," she growled, "you'd better make a contract with me, or _else!"_

WHAT –

Her hands fisted in its mane, and she grinned. "Well, that got your attention," she said.

Alice shouted – she had used her power to break free, and was running towards them, snatching for Oz's hand. His eyes widened. He grabbed Lotti's hand, and felt Alice grab his. Together they felt the world fade away in a flash of dazzling light, and then –

Darkness, and slowed time, and the screaming of the Chains.

xxx

__

_:DDDDD_


	13. seek the past

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

YOU CANNOT KILL ME! the Unicorn howled, as the Chains screeched and the dark water roiled threateningly below them. YOU WOULD NOT DARE! I HAVE PROTECTIONS – ENCHANTMENTS – IF YOU KILL ME, YOU WILL DIE! DO NOT PRESUME TO HOLD ME HERE!

Alice snarled at it. She was holding it in place with her chains, binding its power. Oz clung to its back, his clock swords hovering at its throat.

"It's too powerful," Oz gasped. "Lotti –"

"No it's not," Lotti hissed back. "_Nothing_ is more powerful than you two. KEEP HOLDING IT." She clung grimly to the Unicorn's mane, swinging above the lapping waves. Panting, she reached up her arm and clutched onto the end of one of Alice's chains, then hoisted herself up until she was sitting on its back, her arms wrapped around its neck.

"Unicorn, I ask you again," Lotti snarled. "Make a contract with me. Do it, or else." This was risky – very risky – but so far, it was the only thing she could think of that would grant her some kind of power over the Unicorn.

NEVER. I HAVE NO CONTRACTOR. NO ONE. NEVER NEVER NEVER. I WILL NOT –

"We'll let you go," she said viciously, using her arm to wipe strands of hair from her sweaty face. "Make a contract with me or you're STUCK HERE."

YOU CANNOT KEEP ME HERE! Its voice rose until it was almost a whine. IMPOSSIBLE!

"I wouldn't underestimate the power of your creations, if I were you!" Lotti growled. "_Make a contract with me -!"_

Just for a second, the Unicorn wavered, and everything flashed white.

_Her name is Lady_

_Lady –_

_Rainsworth, yes, and she is young and happy and she loves her family._

_Her brother, Scarborough – and her papa, and her mama, and most of all she loves her book, and the flights of imagination it takes her on, all the way into the clouds_

The lion and the unicorn fought for the crown

_And they did, there were pictures, even, in the book, and she owned it first and it's hers – it _is, _it's mine – go AWAY, Scar!_

The lion beat the unicorn all around town

_No – papa _, why did the unicorn lose _I liked it. Pretty. See? And she points at it with a short child's finger_

Claw

_a human finger _

_can't it be different this time?_

_Can't the unicorn win? Make it win_

_Please?_

_The Unicorn will always lose, don't you see? The lion wins every time. That's how the story goes. You can't change it. _

_Not ever?_

_Never ever. And he kisses her forehead and tucks her up in the blankets. Sweet dreams._

Oz clung to her hand and shouted in her ear, Abyss was all around, the darkness and the Chains shrieked

(and Alice wept because they were singing)

_Her parents die an early death; she is the eldest; and she is Duchess now, Duchess_

The Unicorn's form flickered. Lotti grabbed at its mane, trying to

_Duchess – _

What is my name?

I don't – I can't –

_Duchess. She is Duchess and Scar, her brother, is jealous – but it is not her fault! She is the elder, of course she is the head of the Duchy..._

_And she has two children, twins, Samuel and Sarah Rainsworth, her precious beautiful gems; she gathers them close to her and reads to them, reads them the story of the unicorn who failed._

_It's just a nonsense poem, Scar tells her. Useless. Read them history – science – geography – the Sabrie Town Map-! Anything but this nonsense._

_The twins are next in line, you hear?_

_- To the Duchy, I mean, dear sister._

_The Duchess nods and smiles and pretends to admire the bevels and scrollwork on the balcony, but her hands clench so hard her knuckles turn white._

trying to cling on as tight as she could – she didn't want to fall into the darkness, she had to stay with the one who could get her out -

The Unicorn writhed and flailed. GET OUT! HOW DARE YOU! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

"Keep holding on," Lotti told Oz and Alice. "Don't let go."

LET GO OF ME!

"Agree to the contract, and I'll let you go," Lotti gasped, her grip loosening.

The Unicorn hissed, and then it slumped.

YES.

Lotti screamed. She could not hear, think, breathe. The clock tattoo of the illegal contractor burned on her chest, and she could feel it, a power that she couldn't resist, the Unicorn, flooding through her -

and the tattoo burned each point of the circle into her like a sharp knife, dragging along, hard enough to draw blood.

_NO_

_NO_

_NO_

_NO_

_NO_

_NO_

_PLEASE_

_DON'T LET THIS BE_

_NO_

_THIS_

_ISN'T_

_TRUE_

STOP – FIGHTING - DAMN YOU! YOU WANTED MY MEMORIES? THEN TAKE THEM! TAKE THEM ALL!

Lotti gasped, and slumped against its neck. A lifetime of misery and death flashed past her eyes, pouring into her mind without mercy. At first the memories had been uncertain, confused, but now they came with a vengeance, beating her down, forcing her to bend to the Unicorn's will.

_Her son is dead. Samuel lies dead in his cot and his mother screams until she has no voice left and her eyes are empty and hollow. She does not eat; her ribs begin to show, and little Sarah wails._

_Scar, the Duchess' own brother, killed her son. The knowledge is clear and bright in her mind, sharp and frosty as a dagger of ice. _

_She will get him back. She will make him come back. _

_And so she makes a deal with a devil, a demon, monster from hell-_

Abyss_._

_She will change the past. She will get her son back, her precious one, her Samuel._

_She makes up her mind, chooses her fate; she holds a ball. Nobles come to the House of Rainsworth, like flies to honey, for the ball, the party, the rich food and fine wine and dancing._

_She kills them all. Watches as their blood splatters her fine dress and her Chain devours them greedily –_

_but it doesn't work, not enough, she cannot change the past. Don't you see how the story ends? The unicorn loses_

_every_

_time._

_I did this for him! For my son! She screams, as Scarborough has her dragged to the highest room of the tallest tower and locks her in there with her picture book and her daughter Sarah and plots to kill her little gem. Samuel – my precious Sam, I _did this for you_-! _

_Sarah wastes away before her very eyes, and the Duchess is frantic. With dark power from the Abyss and blood and desperate prayers, she makes spells – enchantments – wards and powers to keep Sarah safe and alive so she will never leave her, never die._

_But Sarah dies, and the Duchess screams, and then she is no longer Duchess. Scarborough is Duke; he is doing well. He has two baby sons now – twins like Samuel and Sarah. He named them Leon and Ernest, says the frightened maid, who leaves as soon as the mad Duke's sister lets her. _

_They do not respond well to history and geography, says her guard. They want stories, and the Duke remembered of a story – so, uh, sorry miss but orders are orders, you gotta give me that book there…_

_And they take the picture book from her, to read to the Duke's brats_

fought for the crown

_and leave her there_

the lion beat the unicorn

_in the dark_

all around town

_and the emptiness and nothing,_

_nothing,_

_nothing left for her at all._

_She does not care when Abyss takes her. Let it take her, take everything she has – she has nothing left at all._

_She does not care when the Chains attack her, as she wades through the waters of Abyss in her bloodstained dress. She wraps the enchantments she made for Sarah around herself, and she is invincible, immortal, beautiful and empty –_

_And as Duchess Serafina Rainsworth – once beautiful, once happy, once great – became a monster, she told herself that she was doing this for them, for her precious daughter, her lost son. She was skeletal, but that was a kind of beauty, and her eyes were hollow, but that merely showed the depth of her grief, did it not?_

_And her hands became gnarled claws, and she hunched over and her face split open and all those who saw her ran away in fear, called her Unicorn, the Dark Unicorn of Abyss, and she hunted down illegal contractors, because they were _foolslike she had been.

_But there was one thing that frightened her still. In the storybook, the lion won, and that would never change, and the Unicorn lost – and what if that was true, what if she lost one day?_

_No. She would never lose. _

_And one day – one day she would become powerful enough to change the course of history. She would be free. And she would bring back her precious children, her precious gems, and they would be happy together, and it would all be worth it, in the end._

Blood. Misery. Pain. Lotti's mouth stretched into a grimace, her eyes wide and staring, and her whole body shook. Everything the Unicorn had seen, everything she'd done – it tore through her mind, crashing down on her –

SUBMIT! SUBMIT! DO NOT DARE DEFY ME, CHARLOTTE BASKERVILLE!

Charlotte Baskerville?

_I killed_

That was her name – right?

Yes. Yes it was.

_a city. They said it was one hundred years ago. I know it's just been months. I went to that city and I took my knife and I killed them, because I was told to, because _he_ told me to, and I killed and killed and killed and killed and killed and killed _

_And killed_

_And killed_

_And killed_

Lotti snarled, and pushed the memories back, shoving her memories of guilt, madness, pain and death back at the Unicorn, back at the Chain that had once been Serafina Rainsworth. "No,"she said. "NO. You. Take. MINE."

Watch as I kill innocent people, children screaming for their mothers, hard working men and women. You made me watch. So I'm returning the favour. TAKE THE MEMORIES. I KILLED A CITY.

The Unicorn faltered and faded under the onslaught.

YOU HAVEN'T WON. I CAN'T LOSE. I REFUSE…

"Out of here," Lotti whispered. "Get us out."

There was silence, for a moment. Then a jolt – and then the Unicorn was running. Alice gasped in shock and clung to its back as hard as she could. The unicorn galloped up a stairway of light, up, and up, and up –

"Where are we going?" Oz asked it.

I – WE – WE'RE

GOING

HOME.

"Home?"

GET OFF ME! GO AWAY! Its voice was panicked, unhinged.

"Home?" Alice repeated. "Where's that?"

Lotti turned to look at them. "I…I think it means the house of Rainsworth. Oz, Alice – the Unicorn's real name is Duchess Serafina Rainsworth, and she's been a Chain for a very long time."

xxx

_It took me a while to figure out how I was going to do this flashback chapter without boring everyone to death, but that's not the reason this chapter took so long. I had the thousand-word flashback written months ago, but just never got round to actually writing the rest of the chapter. Argh, I'm so sorry…the next chapter won't take this long, promise._

_I've been using the holidays to watch a whole heap of anime (Higurashi, Code Geass, Avatar..), and Dr Who starts tonight, so there's been less time for other pursuits, ie. writing. This story's nearly finished though, so I can't leave it hanging :) Stay tuned!_


	14. don't accept

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown

The lion beat the unicorn all round the town

Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown

Some gave them plum cake and drummed them out of town.

_The Unicorn cantered to a halt, and the glowing path of light beneath its hooves fell away in a shower of fading sparks. It breathed heavily, making small gasping sounds, its sides rising and falling unevenly._

_Oz dismounted cautiously, marvelling at the sensation of standing on light, and looked around. They were in the highest reaches of the Pathways, far up above the dark ocean of Abyss. _

"_What now?" Alice asked dubiously. _

_Lotti let go of the Unicorn's neck, and shifted her position, making herself more comfortable. "You can use your power to get out of here yourself if you want," she said. "I'm tied to the Unicorn, so I leave when it leaves."_

"_Hmph." Alice folded her arms. "Like I'd let you out of my sight for even a second. We'll go together."_

_Underneath them, the Unicorn shuddered. DO NOT BE SO SURE, it broke in. Something in its voice made Lotti shiver. _

"_What do you –"_

_The Unicorn grinned._

_IT IS A VERY LONG WAY DOWN._

_Lotti went white._

Clack-clack. Clack-clack.

She walked through the corridors of the place that had been her home, once upon a time, and she forgot, and she remembered.

Once it had a tall tower, and in it they had locked up a lady all alone. And there were rooms, pretty rooms and beautiful gardens, and he didn't despise her, not then – long ago, before…

"_Unicorn, don't - you will NOT –" _

_BE SILENT, GIRL._

"_Serafina –"_

_I! SAID! BE! SILENT!_

_The Unicorn reared up on two legs, screeching, and then it twisted around and kicked out hard. Oz slipped - lost his footing, and he fell and then he was gone. _

_"OZ!" Alice roared, her eyes feral –_

Clack-clack-clack, went her feet against the floor. What made that noise? Was it shoes or was it claws?

"_Oz," she repeated, a whisper this time. But he had fallen into the darkness below too quickly for farewells. She whipped around. "What's down there?" she snapped. "Where'd he go?"_

"_I don't know!" Lotti yelled. "Why are you asking me!" She had flung her arms around the Unicorn's neck once more and laced her fingers together, her knuckles white._

_I SENT HIM AWAY, AWAY, YOU HEAR? It laughed gratingly, and shuddered beneath the two of them. Alice clung on stubbornly._

"_He's in Abyss, right?" she said urgently. "That's what's below us. He can't be anywhere else –"_

"_Alice, I don't think so," Lotti said breathlessly. "If he was just in Abyss…Oz is powerful. He would have come back."_

_Alice was breathing fast, her fists clenched so hard that her sharp nails were biting into her flesh. She leaned forward and spoke into the Unicorn's ear. "Where IS HE?" she growled._

_FOLLOW HIM AND YOU WILL FIND OUT_

_Alice sat up straight and swung one leg over the Unicorn's back to sit sidesaddle. _

"_Alice, NO –"_

_But Lotti's grasping finger's clutched at empty space. Alice had slid off soundlessly, scythe in hand. She was gone in an instant. _

The mansion was empty.

Why was it empty? It had never been like that before.

Was this place even real?

The Chain swayed and staggered, and if anyone had been watching her at that exact moment they would have seen her shape flicker, fade, warp into something else entirely, before snapping back into the form of a gaunt, nightmarish beast.

Why…why was everything like this? Why did it have to turn out this way?

_Lotti scrambled off the Unicorn. "What did you do that for?" she demanded, glaring at it. "Where did you send them?"_

_It stepped towards her. _

"_Don't think I'm going to just jump after them like that stupid rabbit decided to. Did they fall into Abyss or not?"_

_ABYSS_

"_You –"_

_AN ABYSS_

"…_an Abyss?"_

_OF A DIFFERENT SORT THEY ARE TRAPPED._

"_I'm your contractor, Unicorn!" She produced a knife from somewhere in her cloak and gripped it tightly. _

_THE OTHERS ARE GONE I'M FREE NOW I HAVE NO NEED OF THIS FORCED CONTRACT!_

"_You_ _can't break it." She brandished the knife. "I'm not going down without a fight._"

_I WILL NOT KILL YOU. Something deep within its dead eyes seemed to flash. BUT I CAN GET YOU _OUTOFTHEWAY..._ ILLEGAL CONTRACTOR._

_Lotti had barely taken a step back when the Unicorn lowered its head and pointed its horn at her. It stamped its foot against the ground, flexing its claws, and the world flashed bright and white, and full of fiery pain -_

_The Unicorn left her there in the pathways._

She stumbled forward, her claws sliding and clattering. Why was there no one here? No one, nothing, just dead walls.

She had not lived in this place for a long, long time.

xxx

The first thing Oz noticed was that his power was gone. He gasped and clutched at his chest, desperately seeking the crackling flow of energy that was always just within reach- and found nothing. He reached into his pocket, looking for the familiar weight of the golden watch. It wasn't there.

Okay…not good. Where was he? Where was Alice, Lotti? Had the Unicorn taken his power? He opened his eyes and gingerly sat up. The last thing he remembered was shouting, a jolt - and then the sensation of falling. He must have fallen off the Unicorn's back. But he wasn't in Abyss…

He stood with difficulty. Supporting himself against a nearby tree, he attempted to ignore the lingering sensation of falling through darkness, because he _wasn't_. He could feel twigs crunching under his boots, and see the dark sky stretching out above him, and the trees towering around him.

He…recognised this place, didn't he?

_Blood – flesh under his claws – screaming –_

He clapped a hand to his mouth, forcing down bile at the remembered taste of blood. _Michael's _blood. He saw a dark stain splashed across the trunk of the tree across from him, and then he knew for certain that this was the place where – where –

No. Forget that. Don't think about him. You can't afford to remember…

Oz calmed his breathing and glanced around again. The forest was exactly as he remembered, but this time he was alone. The place was dead silent. How had he arrived here? This couldn't be the actual forest – he had fallen _down_, not up. This wasn't Abyss…but it wasn't the real world, either.

He took an unsteady step forward, feeling the lack of power inside his veins as a dull, empty throb. What _was _this place? What was he meant to do here? He took another step -

-and from behind him, the sound of crackling leaves made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He wasn't alone. Slowly, very slowly, he turned around.

Eyes identical to his own caught his gaze and held it. He made out an elegant feline face, sleek golden fur, dark wings spreading out from its back -

"You're..."

The lion's wings rustled in the faint breeze. Oz could only shake his head in wonder.

So this was why he couldn't access his power. He was…this must be somewhere created by his own memories. That was the only possibility. And this Chain -

Oz reached out shakily to touch the beast's muzzle. This Chain was…him. He had nothing to fear…

"Hello," he said.

The lion blinked.

Oz swallowed, and pushed his hand out decisively. His fingers met fur.

The lion jerked back, snarling, and Oz found that he was suddenly terrified beyond all rational thought. He scrambled backwards wildly, wanting more than anything to get away from this beast. Its claws unsheathed, and its lip curled. Its eyes had sparked into furious, rage-filled life. There was a sick jolt in Oz's stomach as he realised that he recognised the emotion in those eyes – he had _been_ that beast, this beast was _him_ –

It pounced, and he rolled out of the way just in time. As it turned out, it seemed he had quite a lot to fear. Oz lurched to his feet and began to run, branches whipping at his face and arms and legs. Behind him there was the sound of the lion's thudding paws.

There was a slight dip in the land, and Oz found himself running downwards. Glad for the extra boost in speed, he widened his strides, letting his legs carry him down the slope. Listening for the sound of the Chain chasing him, he heard nothing, and relaxed, slowing to a jog –

These trees looked awfully familiar.

With a dreadful, sickening rush, Oz looked up to see that he was standing in the exact same patch of woods he had come from, and the lion was standing in front of him, calm and silent. He whipped his gaze around, and saw only the very same trees and undergrowth, and beyond that, the same woods again beyond each other, a thousand times over-

_Face me, _the lion said, and Oz jumped.

_Coward, _it sneered._ Would you accept it if you killed your friends? Alice. Gil. Lotti. Do you just accept everything that comes your way?_

Oz stared, and his hands shook.

_We killed Michael, and you push him out of your mind like he was nothing._

"_You_ did–"

_We're the same. _

"No, we're not –"

_We're the same._

Oz shook his head, but swallowed his disbelief. Well…while the lion wasn't trying to kill him, he might as well make the most of it.

"So… why am I h-"

The lion's eyes flashed, and it growled. _Don't ACCEPT! _

"I was just…" Oz trailed off mid sentence.

_We're the same. Do _you_ know why we're here?_

"Well, I didn't think I should guess, that would be a bit silly –"

_What do you think?_

"Well, I was thinking that this is inside my head, so the Unicorn did something…the Abyss isn't really _real, _right, so when I was falling into it a…thing happened, and now I'm not really falling, I'm in here…in another dimension created by my mind…with you."

The lion just gazed at him with narrowed eyes.

"So…we're the same? You're what I am when I'm a Chain?"

_Yes. _The lion curled its lip and growled.

Oz swallowed, his mouth and throat dry as bones.

_I killed Michael, _the lion said, and Oz knew that _I _was _him, _and that they were unquestionably the same._ Oz Bezarius, face me now!_

Heart fluttering in his chest like a panicked bird, Oz shook his head, took a step back – and still the lion slunk forward, its gaze condemning him.

_I killed Eques. Face me now._

Oz's legs trembled, every fibre of his being screaming at him to get away, get away, don't listen to it! Don't think about it, don't face it, don't -

_I am your sin. I'm every bloodthirsty instinct and killing thought that ever crossed your mind. I'm your jealousy and your obsession and your insanity and your lies. There's one thing I'm not, though, and that's your fear. Face me now, _coward_. _The lion's teeth glinted and its muscles coiled and tautened as it prepared to spring.

This was his sin, and it was going to kill him.

Oz turned and ran.

The lion landed behind him, and he swerved to the right, shame burning in his face. He felt himself beginning to run downhill. No – no escape – he couldn't dwell on this place, couldn't keep thinking about the warm blood that had dripped dripped dripped

_Would you accept it if I killed your friends? _

There was a scream. Oz faltered, slowed. The sound of thudding paws had ceased. The lion had stopped chasing him. Where had it gone?

The scream sounded again. He wavered for a moment, but then turned and ran towards the sound. Whoever it was, he didn't want this. He didn't want them in danger because of him…

He burst through the bushes - and stumbled at the sight of the victim. It was Alice, clutching her chest, blood trickling through her fingers. Her knees wobbled and she sank to the ground.

_Wouldn't you like to be that one – the lone knight-?_

Oz couldn't think. The bottom had dropped out of his stomach and there was a roaring in his ears. No. She wasn't dying. No, she – Alice didn't bleed, she was untouchable -

She looked up and saw him. "Pathetic manservant," she mumbled, and her head drooped.

Shrugging off his vest, he rushed to her and kneeled, attempting to clumsily wrap it around her middle. There was so much red, her rapid Chain's heart pumping the life's blood out of her.

"Alice," he whispered. "Alice, Alice, Alice –" His hands shook, and his vision faltered.

"Relax, I'm not dead yet," she muttered.

Oz's breathing came harsh and fast. The forest was calm, the sky peaceful. Tears blurred his vision as he finished tying the knot around her wound.

"Alice," he whispered, and drew her to his chest, burying his face in her shoulder. Was this real? Was he dreaming? It didn't matter. In no reality whatsoever could Alice be allowed to die.

"Hey, Oz."

"Yes?" he stammered, his voice cracking.

"Y'make a good knight," she mumbled.

Oz stared at her. Tears began to slip down his cheeks.

Behind him, the bushes began to rustle, and he heard leaves crunch beneath softly padding feet.

He began to turn, but too late – the great cat leapt, wings guiding its flight, and Oz clutched Alice closer to him, shielding her as the lion dove at him –

Just for that second, as it passed through him, its being melding perfectly with his, Oz understood everything quite clearly. He was able to kill, and he wanted to kill, and there was a creature in front of him whose scent was fresh and hot and full of blood, and how had he not seen - it was all so _simple…_

Alice didn't scream, but just gave a faint sigh as his jaws sank into her neck and her eyes went blank. Bone splintered and muscle tore and hot blood spurted into his mouth and down his throat, and the lion laughed with the pleasure of it all as she fell back, back, back, her hair streaming in the air like shining dark ribbons -

_Accept _this, _Oz Bezarius. _

Oz screamed, and screamed, and sobbed, and gathered Alice to him, clutching her hair hard enough to rip it out by the roots, and his tears dripped off his chin onto her dead white face.

_We're the same._

_You did this._

_You're a Chain inside, you're a beast -_

Desperately he kissed her mouth, cradling her cheeks, whispering against her face _come back, come back, this isn't true_! Her lips were warm still, and as he pressed his face against hers, trying to trap that warmth, she changed. Her face turned demonic, fake, like a doll. Her mouth stretched into an impossible grin and her eyes turned to black holes, and she crumbled away with the breeze.

Oz sobbed even harder.

_Oz –_

He looked up, and of course it was there. He inhaled deeply, looking down.

"I…I won't run away," he said.

_I killed-_

"I know," he said, his voice thick with tears. "I know, and I'm so so sorry. I can't fix it. I can't change it." He looked directly at the lion for the first time. "And I'm not going to run away."

_Good. _He thought he caught a hint of approval from himself, and felt a little happiness. _That's all you needed to do. _

"Michael…Eques…I tried to forget about them, when they didn't deserve forgetting…"

_I know. We're the _same_, Oz Bezarius._

Oh, damn it. Oz could feel himself starting to cry again "I…I killed them," he said, and the lion padded closer. "Oh. Oh…"

_You're not going to shut it off and lock it away and pretend?_

Oz took a shaky breath and nodded.

_Good. _The lion sat back, satisfied.

"Will this hurt? What's going to happen?"

Something in its eyes flickered, and it wavered, suddenly uncertain for the first time.

_I can't absolve you of your guilt, because I am your guilt, don't you see? I don't know what else to do but this…_

"I'm…I'm forgiven, though. Right?" said Oz.

_Why don't you ask yourself that? _The lion shuddered, then shook its head and stepped forward. _I promise it'll hurt…but only for a second._

It pounced, knocking him backwards. Oz yelled out in shock and pain, limp in the lion's grasp. Its eyes flashed, and it reared back, snarling. _You're meant to fight. You're not meant to just _accept_ your death! _

Oz shook his head. "What do you want me to do? What am I supposed to –"

_You tell me! Oz, WE'RE THE SAME. _The lion that had been so purposeful before, so angry and confident, shook its head and roared mournfully to the endless woods.

"I guess that's why you hate me so much," Oz muttered, his lips twitching. "Trust _me_ to -"

The lion howled, and it lunged down, and Oz thought he could see every one of its gleaming teeth –

xxx

_Oz: I iz ded __

_Again, sorry about the wait! I promise it won't happen again, for real this time, as I've actually finished the story! –celebrates- This is the first part of the final chapter, which is over 9,000 words. (It actually is.) For everyone's sanity, I split it up into three parts for posting. However, the rest of the story is for all intents and purposes chapter 14. _

_Hope you liked it! Reviews are greatly, greatly appreciated. I hope to have the next instalment up very shortly. _


	15. don't give in

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

She slid and nearly fell as her claws scrabbled against the frictionless floor. She looked around wildly. There was no one.

Where was she going? How had she got here? There had been a contract – _hands clutching her mane, a voice in her ear – _

And there had been pain - confusion – loss –

xxx

The instant Alice opened her eyes, she knew for certain that this wasn't Abyss. It was utterly silent, which meant no Chains, and there were stars glittering in the sky.

Oz would know what this place was. Or he would have an idea, anyway. She, however, had absolutely no clue, and didn't particularly want to admit it. Wasn't she supposed to be in Abyss? Maybe she had died from the fall, and she had gone to a world for dead people…

She got to her feet, dusted herself off, and looked around, only to grit her teeth and clench her fists at the sight that met her eyes. Why…_why… _

Alice was standing in the ruins of Leverru's main square, and the dead lay all around her, piled in the narrow streets.

She was utterly alone.

Who was doing this to her? Who was so determined to remind her of her darkest hour? She'd _accepted_ her punishment, damn it, she _knew_ what she deserved, but Oz needed her. She couldn't have just abandoned him like that. He had needed her alive more than these people needed her among their ranks.

Or…had he not needed her after all? If she had just died, he would be free of the contract. He wouldn't be burdened with all that power, and the insanity that came with it. Had she made a mistake when she had run away from her own execution?

She shook her head, clenched her fists, and began to walk, unsteadily picking through the heaped corpses.

This was her fault. These people had died, these lives had been ruined, the city had turned to this, and it was all on her shoulders. They were innocent. She couldn't comprehend it. She couldn't…

Dizzy with guilt, she swayed, putting a hand to her mouth as she felt the bile rising in her throat.

"You killed a city," said a voice behind her, and she swung around, snarling, scythe in hand, ready to attack them if need be -

But it was Oz. She faltered in confusion, the scythe vanishing as her plan of attack halted abruptly at the sight of him. He smiled faintly, emerald eyes shining, hands stuck in his pockets. Cheerful, human, slightly goofy - just like she remembered him.

Alice took a step forward, reaching out. "…Oz?" He was real, right? She must have followed him into this place when she jumped after him. She clutched at his hand. "Do you know where we –"

Gently, with an air of detachment, he pulled his hand away, leaving her spluttering.

"Don't touch me," he said, still smiling.

Alice simply gaped.

He folded his arms, that condescending smile changing into a slight grimace of revulsion. "You're a sick murderer, and a Chain, and you're covered in blood. Why would I want to be anywhere _near _you, you filth?"

For an instant, everything in Alice's world froze. Oz didn't – he didn't - how DARE her manservant say such things to her-!

But then she looked at her hands.

Indeed, her gloves were soaked in blood. Her boots were splattered with it, her face, her hair…

She looked up, her mouth pressed into a hard line.

"This is ridiculous," she told him. "I'm dreaming."

"Always so blunt," Oz laughed, smiling again. "I find it quite disgusting. You should be more ladylike."

"Oh, for…" Alice trembled with anger, gripping her scythe. She looked at her gloves again. They were white and clean. "You're a sick delusion and I don't want anything to do with you. Go away."

He stepped forward, that faint smile fixed on his face. "You know, Alice, you killed a city…all these people. Even _I _managed to hold on to my power. I didn't let it go like this. I only killed some Pandora agent and a Chain. But look at this. Look at what you've done. It's _evil."_

"I…I was ready to die, to accept what I deserved. But you _needed _me, Oz, I couldn't just leave you-!"

"I don't need you," he said kindly. "I have Lotti. Don't you see? You're just tagging along, here. All you're doing is driving me insane with that _ridiculous_ amount of power you have –"

Alice leapt, slashing at him with scythe, clawed hands, teeth – but he wasn't there. She whipped around, and all of a sudden he was standing just behind her.

"I'm just being _honest, _Alice," he said plaintively.

"Stop HIDING, you coward! Come out _and face me!"_

"Do you _really_ think I'm a coward, Alice?" And all of a sudden he was leaning over her, eyes glittering, his hands gripping her shoulders. "You need me. Who else is going to keep you human?" He reached into his vest and withdrew the golden pocket watch. "Music. Beauty. Time. I have it all right here…"

Alice's eyes widened, and she jerked in surprise, but all her strength had vanished the moment he touched her. Eyes blazing, she trembled under his grip.

"Oh, are you _swooning, _Alice?" he cooed.

She flicked her hair and crossed her arms with effort. "Enough of that. You've already given yourself away. I know who you are and I know why you're here, and I know that it's the same reason you're _always_ here." _The one thing I don't know is how to get out, and he's going to exploit that for all he's worth…_

"I'm Oz," he said, drawing her closer as if those cruel words from earlier had never been said. He rested his chin on the top of her head, stroking her hair comfortingly. "And I'm right here."

Her fists were clenched so hard as to turn her knuckles white. "Don't play games with me," she spat.

He just laughed, his hand sliding slowly down her back. "Oh, this is precious. You used to be so simple, Alice! But things have changed, haven't they…."

Briefly she remembered those peaceful days shut up in the Pandora headquarters, eating plum cake with Break and Sharon, when she knew who she was and where she was going and why. When she knew who Oz_ was_, or had a better idea, anyway, and that the Baskervilles were enemies, and the weight of the Second Tragedy didn't rest on her shoulders.

"I know who you are," Alice reminded him. "Because there's only one person in the world who hates me as much as you do..."

The boy laughed yet again and kissed the top of her head, and took her hands, and then Alice looked up and it was Vincent_ – _she couldn't help it, she screamed – and then he was Gilbert, yellow eyes dancing, Break, hiding a sinister grin, Sharon, her throat mangled and her mouth moving but making no sound, Lotti, who giggled and stroked Alice's cheek with soft fingers and sharp, sharp nails –

Her knees gave way, and she sank to the ground. Raising her head, all she could see was a pair of green eyes looking warmly into her own, and golden hair. He gathered her into his arms and she could feel her own tears seeping into his shirt. But his arms were too long, too strong, and his voice was all wrong as it whispered softly into her ear, and she looked up and realised that it wasn't Oz. It was _him. _And he drew her back down, forcefully, and he whispered and whispered and now she could hear what he was saying.

_You killed a city you killed a city you killed a city you killed a city a city a city _

The whispers grew to screams, and she could see the people who made them, all around her. A young boy, perhaps on his way home from school, crushed and lifeless in the street – a mother, only about twenty, who died with her young daughter in her arms – a gruff tradesman – a grandmother – a florist, a café owner, an artist, a coach driver- dogs without owners, horses without riders –

Alice lay in the man's arms, and she watched them die, and she felt every shed tear and every life snuffed out. She couldn't run away. She couldn't ignore it or blame it on someone else, she couldn't accept it and forget it and package it neatly away, because she knew that this was _all her fault._ She dimly thought she might pass out from the horror of it all.

She couldn't move.

The man cupped her cheeks and smiled at her. It was Oz.

"Do you see now?" he asked her, stroking her cheek, and she thought she caught a hint of another voice layered over his. "Do you see what you've done?" And there was another question hidden under that – _are you broken yet? _

"Yes," she breathed out. She couldn't manage anything else.

Oz's eyes flashed silver-white with triumph. Alice had never hated anything more in her whole life.

He smoothed her hair back and he kissed her. She opened her mouth, and he sighed and pushed forward victoriously, possessively –

-and then she bit down on his tongue, hard enough to draw blood. He (or she) drew back with a snarl of rage, and Alice leapt away. Feeling strength return to her limbs, she summoned her scythe and swung it without hesitation, lopping off the Oz-figure's head.

Her face like stone, she watched as it dropped to the floor, golden hair flopping over its dead green eyes, watched as it turned into a grinning puppet mask. The body dissolved with it.

"I killed a city," Alice told the air. She fingered the golden watch in her pocket, the one she'd taken from the silver-eyed monster. It seemed to warm under her touch. "And now, thanks to you, I know what that means. I can make up for it. Maybe it'll take every day of the rest of my life, every drop of power my body has." Masonry was falling down around her, streets were cracking and the sky was rumbling ominously. "But I can and I will, and _don't you dare tell me I can't atone for this."_

The Will was silent.

Alice nodded happily at the proof that she had won this particular game.

And then she began to run.

The buildings collapsed behind her and disintegrated. She looked behind her and there was nothing but darkness - all the more reason to keep running, then. Oz's watch was growing uncomfortably hot against her thigh, so she clicked it open. Both arrows were pointing to twelve o'clock, straight ahead.

Alice nodded to herself, and kept running straight ahead. Oz needed saving. She couldn't falter for an instant.

It was getting darker. The fake city had crumbled away entirely, leaving only a single winding path, heading into darkness. She thought she might recognise it – it reminded her of a tower in the forest, and a girl locked up all alone – but when she thought about it, nothing came to mind.

When she reached a set of double doors, she almost wasn't surprised at all. They were large and white and imposing, perhaps bringing to mind the front doors of the Bezarius mansion. She wasn't even out of breath. Straight backed, she walked up and pushed the doors open.

She found herself in a forest, leaf litter crunching under her boots, moonlight filtering through the leaves. By the time she looked behind her, the doors had vanished.

Walking out of the grove, she noticed that it felt like she was travelling downwards, even though the ground appeared completely level. She looked up at the trees. There was something very off about this place – she seemed to be seeing everything from higher up than she actually was. The stars were very bright, and the shadows very murky, and everything had a slight tinge of red cast over it. The one thing in the whole scene that was rendered with perfect clarity was a fresh bloodstain, splattered right across a tree –

-there was a flicker of movement behind her, and she whipped around, to see Oz in his lion form. He was facing away from her, crouched over a limp, bloodstained body, its neck between his teeth.

He dropped the body and looked around at her approach. _…Alice?  
_

"Oz!" She felt joy light up her face as she started forward – only to stop dead and summon her scythe just a moment later. She stepped back, afraid and incredibly confused. The body in the lion's jaws was _Oz._

Was the Will behind this, too? What was going _on_?

xxx

She…she wasn't in the house, she realised. Not the real one.

She wasn't anywhere.

Where was she? Where in the world?

_Where were they? _What was this place?

Memories blurred and overlapped in her mind_. Rainsworth. Rainsworth mansion was her home_ – or it had been. No, wait…a new memory intruded, forcing its way past that one. Baskerville. Baskerville –

The Chain shrieked. _Was it that pink-haired wretch who was doing this? No, she had left her in Abyss –_

So _where was she now? _It wasn't the house, not really -

xxx

The lion snarled, its eyes filled with hate. Alice levelled the scythe at it.

"Who are you?" she snapped, not trying to keep her anger and confusion under control. "Are you both Oz?"

_Yes, _it said.

Alice shook her head impatiently, not bothering to comprehend_. _"What…what have you done? Did you kill him?"

_He won't die. _The lion's gaze turned puzzled. _He's in pain. He passed out from the pain, I felt it. But he just won't _die_! _It raked the ground with sharp claws.

Alice dropped to her knees and pulled Oz's human form towards her. His eyes were closed, and he was utterly limp and motionless. "It's probably something to do with …oh, I don't know. But Oz might."

The lion jerked backwards.

Then it answered.

_Because you can't kill yourself, _it said.

"Huh? But what if you jumped off a building –"

_Tell me, how would I, as one aspect of my own mind, kill another aspect without causing myself severe harm? You know, I don't think he's _letting_ himself die._

Alice blinked. Its sudden change in tone from petulant to wise was jarring, but somehow familiar. "Then how do I wake him up?" She cradled Oz in her arms.

_I don't know. _The lion cocked its head, back to petulant again, looking something like an oversized housecat._ Why do you want_ _to wake _him_ up? You have _me_._

Alice looked at the bloodstain on the tree. She remembered this place, she realised – it was the forest where Oz had killed that Pandora agent.

"We need to get out of here," she said aloud. "We're trapped in your mind. We're probably both still falling through Abyss, in the real world…" She looked from Oz to the lion, from the lion to Oz. Except…they were both Oz, weren't they? So how was she meant to save them?

The blood from the nasty wound Oz's neck was congealing. As she looked at it, an idea flitted through Alice's mind.

She stood up, hefting the scythe. It was crazy and awful and stupid, but there really was nothing else to try. The lion was padding around in circles, raking up furrows in the ground. "Oz," she said.

It looked around.

She watched its eyes as she brought the scythe down. There was confusion, anger, pain, - but there was no fear. It fell to the ground, on top of the human Oz, and as their blood mixed, the animal one slowly began to fade. Was it melting into him, sinking down and becoming part of him – or was it disappearing? She couldn't tell.

In the distance, she heard a tree fall.

No time to waste. Alice reached down, hooking her arms under Oz's and hauling him to his feet. She saw him open his eyes and blink in confusion.

"What –"

"Come on," she interrupted, scanning the clearing as she briskly dragged Oz through the trees. She could hear branches creaking and groaning above her, and heard a crash behind her. "Come _on!"_

Oz was wide awake now. She let go of him to let him stumble alongside her. "Alice, this dimension is being destroyed –"

"Yes, and that's why we're doing our best to get the hell out of here! This way!"

She picked a direction and ran, dragging Oz behind her.

xxx

The Chain shook her head, trying to clear her mind, trying to remember –

There was a faint glimmer in the corner of her eye. She turned around to see a door. And then she knew.

Those memories weren't hers - they belonged to the one she had contracted to…the one who had turned her into a Chain. She took another step and once again she saw herself as she was, saw herself in the form of a beast, and she roared with disgust. Her image flickered again, and for a moment she was a ragged, barefoot girl with rose-coloured hair and eyes.

She could feel _so much_ _power_ at her fingertips, more than even her friends could hope to have – it was everything the Unicorn had and more. She had every vile spell it had ever made for itself, every drop of power it had gained from the chaos and suffering of its victims.

The Unicorn's self kept flowing into her head, unabated. She had mastered the flow for a while, but now that she was lost here, a Chain, she couldn't stop it. She screamed and clutched her head – or was the scream a roar? and vowed to punish the Unicorn for this.

She would win.

She would win.

How long since she had been in the real world? Hours? Days? Weeks? Time flowed strangely in Abyss. The Unicorn had done something – knocked her out, and she had woken to searing, burning pain, and then she was falling… and now she was here, in this dimension of memories. Was it Baskerville House of a century ago? Was it the Rainsworth Mansion of even further back? She didn't know. Maybe both.

She raised her head and called out to the Unicorn with everything she had. She knew that it would hear her, and come and face this challenge, because the Unicorn had sworn to defeat the lion once and for all_, _and she wasn't going to deny that now.

xxx

The forest had vanished entirely, and Oz and Alice had found themselves on a path stretching out into darkness. Alice gulped at the sight of the void stretching down below them. They'd better tread carefully.

She looked around to see Oz staring too, and tugged at his arm. "No time. We have to go."

As she spoke, a bit of rock crumbled away under Oz's heel, and he stepped forward hastily.

"Where _are _we going, anyway?"

She looked out into the distance pensively, biting her lip. "Um…I hadn't thought of that." She pointed out into the darkness. "There should be a door there. Leading to…somewhere. Oz, who are we looking for?"

"Think of who we're missing, Alice!"

Alice's eyes widened. "Lotti? Oh, yeah…" She had jumped after Oz without sparing a thought for what would happen to the Baskerville. She looked to the ground guiltily. What if she was in trouble because of that?

"How will we find her?"

Alice shrugged uneasily. "I don't know. She might have fallen and gone into a strange place made of memories, like we did."

"You went into a dimension like that too?" When Alice nodded vaguely, he narrowed his eyes. "Alice…you do _want_ to find Lotti, right?"

She scuffed her boot against the ground. "If she asks, I never told you this, but she scares me to death, really. She's so crazy and mad and dangerous. But…she's also _good. _It's there in her. She's saved our lives." She looked up at him. "We owe it to her. And, you know…I think…she's our friend."

"I know exactly what you mean," Oz said, and took her hand.

Alice turned away from the chasm, her face set. "Then think of her." They began to run.

The path crumbled and turned to dust and rocks behind them, but they didn't stop for an instant. She could see a set of double doors glimmering into being ahead of them, a rampant unicorn engraved into the wood. Her feet pounded against the path, and she could hear Oz breathing rapidly beside her. The way ahead of them began to crack and crumble –

And then they had reached the doors. She flung them open, and she could see that the other side was a corridor, with high walls and chandeliers and painted walls, and gleaming white floors.

They stepped through.

xxx

_That was the penultimate chapter of this story, and my personal favourite part! _

_Heh, looks like Alice turns out to be Oz's 'lone knight' instead. He's kinda crap at saving her. _

_EFF YEAH HOLIDAYS. –goes to write- If you're into Kingdom Hearts or Higurashi, be aware that I've got some stuff planned for those fandoms.~_

_I hope this story isn't too depressing or anything, what with the constant angst every chapter. Hey, it's not like there's been any major character deaths =P _

_Reviews greatly appreciated!  
_


	16. think of her

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN**

When Oz stepped backwards with shock, part of him expected to hit against the doors, but they weren't there. His boots made clacking noises against the floor as he hurriedly kept backing up, reaching for his power.

"What is it?" Alice hissed.

"There!" He pointed – and then blinked. He thought he had seen – but no, it couldn't be. The figure crouched there on the floor was definitely human.

"Is that Lotti?" Alice hurried forward, her footsteps echoing in the empty corridor. "Lotti, is that you?"

Oz hung back. The figure might well be a Chain or a puppet or a shade, some horrible derivative of Lotti's consciousness. Still, he was surprised when the huddled figure raised her head with a hiss and there was madness in her eyes.

"Unicorn!" she snarled. "Unicorn – I'LL KILL YOU! Don't think you can win!"

Alice jumped back, startled, and Oz grabbed her hand. Lotti stood with shaking limbs, her clothes torn and dirtied, her feet bare, her hair tangled and her expression twisted with hate.

"Lotti?"

She blinked and looked at them properly. "Oz? Alice? That's you, right?" The weariness and anger seemed to melt off her face, leaving a smile full of relief and happiness in its place.

Oz rushed forward and hugged her, Alice following soon after. "I'm sorry I just up and left you," she said in a small voice as they separated.

"No problem," she said. "Just got abandoned by my super powerful companions, nearly died, got turned into a Chain, had a severe identity crisis, but we're good. Just don't do it again." She smiled sweetly.

"We won't," Alice promised fervently – then frowned. "Wait, what? You _turned into a Chain?_"

"It was more painful than I was expecting," she said, her smile twisting. "You know, I discovered an awful lot of things about the Unicorn while it was happening. I nearly lost myself in the process…"

"Things? What do you mean?"

"The Unicorn's past. Its thoughts. Everything. I've got all its power, too, and every spell and curse it's wrapped around itself. I know all its weaknesses." Lotti laughed humourlessly. "It knows mine now, too, I guess…"

Oz perked up. "Weaknesses?"

"It's more like what it believes is its weakness." Lotti shrugged. "It thinks that only a lion would have a chance of defeating it…you know, because of the rhyme? But it's got a plan to cover that. Whoever kills the Unicorn _will_ die themselves."

Oz's eyes were wide, and he trembled as he stared at the ground. Lotti _had _to know what she was telling him. What she was telling him to do.

Only a lion would have a chance of defeating it.

He was a lion. He was _the _lion.

He had to be! Was there any other way? Had all this struggling, the whole thing been leading up to this? Was this why, on that awful night, he and Alice had opened the door and let it out? Was it all meant for this moment?

So that he would kill the Unicorn - and die with it?

He looked at Alice. Pale faced, she shook her head slowly. He saw her mouth form the word "no".

The inevitability of his death sunk into him, and the weight of it nearly forced him to his knees. He would fight for his friends, fight every sin that he had committed, fight for the memory of the dead, but the one death he couldn't fight was his own. He bowed his head in acceptance.

He looked at Lotti. Her face was filled with rage and fear. "Unicorn," she growled, bristling. "You won't have time to hurt them. _I'll kill you first_."

Oz reached out pleading hands, trying to make her see that they were Oz and Alice, her friends – but then Alice was gripping his wrist tightly, and he saw –

WON'T I? _WILL_ _YOU_, LOTTI BASKERVILLE?

-that Lotti was not staring _at _them, but _beyond _them.

He whipped around, and the Unicorn was there, and he heard the death bells tolling in his head. Alice snarled, and then the rabbit was hulking beside him, and he felt himself shifting, becoming the lion, until he felt a hand on his shoulder and a whispered warning. "Don't. She hates lions, remember?"

He turned to see Lotti, her face grimly set.

"And how am I supposed to fight it if I'm a defenceless human?"

The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. "Move it, Jack."

Oz looked her in the eye. "My name is Oz," he said.

She looked startled for a moment, but then she nodded, perhaps realising it properly for the first time. "So it is," she said, smiling then.

"We came to find you," Oz said.

"You know, you shouldn't be here. I don't know what this place is myself."

"We made our choice," he said. "We're not going to leave you now." But I will, he realised. I have to kill the Unicorn. I have to end it here, with both our deaths…

DON'T EVEN _TRY_ TO FIGHT ME, the Unicorn spat. Its message was directed at all of them. NOW I HAVE A CONTRACTOR, A CHAIN, I HOLD UNIMAGINABLE POWER. I WAS PLANNING… TO SIMPLY LEAVE HER HERE, AMPLIFY THE POWER I HOLD WHILE SHE SUFFERS BUT IF SHE WANTS TO FIGHT THEN WHO AM I TO DENY HER THE PLEASURE OF LOSING PITIFULLY?

And it grinned. Its voice had become jarring to listen to, somehow _wrong._

Oz whipped around to face the Unicorn. "You –!"

He was the lion, then, and bounding towards it, clock swords angled at its neck. It laughed, that horrible, grating laugh, and gestured with its horn. Oz was thrown backwards, crashing into the other two and sending them sliding back across the floor. The Unicorn tossed its mane, and the ground rippled and undulated, and then they were falling towards the painted ceiling –

Oz flapped his wings, but the corridor was tumbling around and around and he didn't know which way was up. Throughout it all the Unicorn stood and grinned. It was _playing_ with them. Oz roared and leaped for it, but it nimbly dodged out of the way and sent the gravity in the corridor haywire again, causing him to tumble backwards.

I CAN TRAP YOU ALL HERE, IF YOU LIKE, it said. IN FACT I THINK I WILL. YOU HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT NUISANCES TO ME. NUISANCES. IRRITATING. PESTS. YOU'RE ALL IN LEAGUE WITH HIM. MY BROTHER, SCAR. YOU ARE. YOU WANT TO KILL THEM. It sent the gravity another direction, and Oz saw Alice hit the wall hard. He yelled and scrambled over to her. MY CHILDREN, MY

YOU

YOU WANT TO KILL THEM! YOU! The Unicorn wailed, and Oz glanced over at it, and saw that its eyes were trembling and wide and completely, completely mad.

_So much power…it's enough to drive _anyone _insane…_ He looked at Lotti. She was a Chain, and she was contracted to it, and –

He growled and launched himself at it again.

I'LL KEEP YOU ALL HERE! I'M MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY OF YOU! I'LL LOCK YOU UP LIKE YOU LOCKED UP ME it went to Alice and caught its claws around her neck and pinned her viciously to the ceiling. YOU WILL FEED MY POWER, YOU'LL NEVER DIE, YOU'LL STAY HERE AND GO _INSANE, MAD, UTTERLY MAD, _(like me) I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN. It knocked Oz back with barely a thought. BLOODSTAINED BLACK RABBIT. I KNOW YOUR NAME NOW. Its mouth unstitched and fell open, a gaping red maw lined with teeth like razors. DID YOU ENJOY YOUR POWER? I THINK YOU DID. I THINK YOU DID

VERY

MUCH

It turned its burning eyes to Lotti. AND YOU. I WILL LEAVE YOU BROKEN AND SUFFERING AND MAD. YOU WON'T _EVER_ _MOVE_ _AGAIN_. Cracks began to spread in the walls, spiralling out from where it was digging its claws. Bits of plaster and stone began to fall in all directions, until the air was thick with it and they were coughing and spluttering, unable to see.

"Oz, do something!" Alice gasped.

How? What was _he _supposed to do? Oz shook his head in despair. For the Unicorn to die, for the Unicorn to be defeated…the lion had to fight it, and the lion had to win.

The lion _would _win. There wasn't another option.

Oz roared, and the cracks spread faster. Lotti stumbled and fell. "What are you thinking?" she shouted.

"I'm going to do it, Lotti," he said. "I'm going to kill the Unicorn."

"No – you IDIOT! You're not meant – you can't – you'll _die –"_

The surface they were standing on fell through. In a haze of rushing air and plaster dust, Oz looked for the Alice, and saw that she had escaped the Unicorn's clutches and was now swooping around it, ineffectually slashing at it with her scythe. It wasn't letting her get anywhere near it; power shimmered around it like heated air.

His sense of balance swung around again wildly, and he found himself crashing to the floor. He lay there, stunned and out of breath, staring the pale blue painted wall, unable to think.

"We're here…" Lotti gasped. "This is her room."

"Whose room?" Alice was on her feet, human again, scythe at the ready. Oz shook his head to clear it and got to his feet, claws unsheathed.

W

H

Y

They all looked up. The Unicorn had landed in the room, and every one of its limbs was shaking.

WHY?

WHY

HERE

?

Its voice rose to a piteous cry. It opened its mouth and screeched, as Lotti struggled to her feet.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, pain etched in every line of her face, and Oz jerked in surprise as he saw her reach out to it with one trembling hand. The Unicorn trembled, shivered, shook.

THE LION BEAT THE UNICORN

ALL AROUND TOWN

Lotti touched its shoulder. "I know. I know." And then the Unicorn's skeletal shape was flickering, warping, softening, and for an instant she was human.

She was a tall, beautiful woman, her hair piled into a bun, wearing a ball gown stained with blood. Tears streamed down her face. She shook her head, sobbing -

"…Serafina?"

NO! NO! NO! She was the Unicorn again, her claws tearing into the carpet. I AM THE UNICORN! _WHY HERE?_

"This was her room," Lotti said. "When she was a girl –"

And then Alice began to talk, questioning and yelling, and the Unicorn wailed, backing into a corner, flicking from human to beast to human and back as her gaze travelled across the room.

Suddenly, Oz stood. They fell silent.

"Stand back," he said. "I…I've got to end it." He stepped forward and he was the lion, green eyes shimmering with power. "I'm the lion. I'm the only one who can do it." He swallowed convulsively. "Who can defeat her." His breathing became harsh and ragged. "I've got to do it." He looked at Alice pleadingly. She gazed at him with condemnation. "I-I have to…I have to…" His clock swords pressed jaggedly against the Unicorn's heaving neck. One slipped, drawing a little blood, and she cried out in pain.

Oz felt himself fade back to human. The clock swords wavered. "I have to," he sobbed. _I have to accept this, I have to do this, it's the only way!_

"I told you," Lotti said. "You'll die. Whoever kills the Unicorn dies as well."

Oz looked at Alice despairingly. "I'm sorry –"

"Don't you dare." She fixed him with a steely glare. "Don't you even –"

He clenched his teeth, stilled his breathing, tried to calm his racing heart, and thought about what it meant to die. He stepped forward, reaching, changing -

'Oz, have I ever told you that you're an _idiot?_" Lotti pushed him roughly to one side. "It's not your job to kill her –"

-and all of a sudden she was a lioness, her true Chain form. She gleamed with rosy light, her red eyes fierce and determined –

"-because _I'm the lion." _

The Unicorn looked up wildly. She reached out and her claws softened, blurred, became fingers clutching at air. YOU ARE

Lotti lunged.

Oz and Alice yelled out, both reaching for her, shouting _no! _and _why! _and _you don't have to do this, _but they knew that she did. Lotti leaped at the Unicorn with claws outstretched. The room warped and shimmered, the pretty tower room where the Duchess had grown up, and as she flew, Serafina knew she was going to die. This was the end, and it had all been for nothing because _where were her precious children now? _

Death soared towards her on blood-red wings, and it was so terrifyingly, sickeningly familiar. She had called upon it many a time. It was coming for her, now, and all she could do was take it with her. She knew it would be like this, deep in her bones. She was always going to lose.

_No. _This last time, this final game – she _would not lose it, _she _would not forfeit –_

-and Lotti howled and thrashed and gurgled and when she fell back, Oz could see a the hilt of a dagger embedded in her throat. Blood welled bright and scarlet around it, trickling down her neck and seeping into her fur, darkly staining her rose-gold coat. She worked her mouth, trying to speak, but could not make a sound.

Serafina fell to her knees in front of her, and slowly let go of the hilt like she couldn't believe her eyes. Her delicate fingers trembled as she sat back, her eyes wide with shock.

"I won," she said, blankly, speaking with a voice for the first time in a long, long while. "I beat it. I beat the lion. _I won." _

Lotti flickered, diminished. As a human she suddenly seemed very small, choking and kneeling and coughing up blood, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. Oz hugged her, and he felt Alice reaching her arms around her, too, trying to give her warmth and peace and everything she'd lost. "It's okay – it's fine – you'll be fine, don't move, just don't –"

She reached up with trembling hands and pulled the dagger out of her neck, causing the blood to flow out of her even faster.

On her knees, she looked up at Serafina with dim eyes, and reached out a bloodstained hand. She tried to say something, but all she could manage was a hoarse rasp. Alice leaned close to hear, her fingers pressing desperately against the wound, blood coating her hands. Oz's hands shook so badly that he could barely hold the vest he was trying to tie around her neck to stem the flow.

Serafina seemed to know what she had said, and her face relaxed into bliss as she, too, dropped to her knees.

"I did," she said, her outline fading and shimmering. "I won..."

Lotti turned her face to Oz and Alice. She was fading too, dissolving and flickering away.

_I wasn't expecting to lose, _she said with the voice of a Chain.

"You won't even leave a body behind," Alice whispered, her eyes glazed.

"Alice –" Oz choked out.

_Give me Leon's crown, _Lotti said.

Oz pulled it out and placed it on her head. She hooked her fingers around it and drew it close, and gave Alice and Oz a hopeless smile.

Lotti Baskerville died a queen. The bloodstained knife vanished.

"All its power," Oz whispered. "Every spell and curse it wrapped around itself…" Was he right? Would the Unicorn die too, now? _Yes_, he thought savagely, and if she doesn't _I'll make sure of it myself-_

He looked to the Unicorn and she was smiling. "Did it all happen? Or was it all a dream?" she wondered. "Was it really there? Any of it?"

"I…" Oz swallowed painfully.

"That's okay," Serafina Rainsworth whispered, her voice cracking. "The unicorn won." Then she was gone, too, her smile disappearing last of all - and the dimension was cracking, falling, fading, gone, imploding in a burst of brilliant light. Oz clung to Alice, reaching for her and screaming but he couldn't hear her, couldn't see, couldn't think – was it really there? Any of it?

xxx

Oz opened his eyes to falling and darkness. It was almost comforting, but not quite.

He reached for his power and became the lion, flapping his wings hard, looking around him in all directions. There was nothing anywhere –

– except in one direction. Alice was there, soaring towards him.

They met in midair and embraced, their hair streaming upwards in the silence and the rushing nothingness.

"They died," Oz said. "Both of them, they died…" He buried his head in her shoulder. "Alice...I can't – what on earth are we going to do now?"

She gripped his shoulders tightly and met his eyes, staring him down. "You know, I don't really care if she's dead or not." When Oz jerked and gasped, she continued. "Because it doesn't matter. I'm going to find her either way." Oz caught a flash of bright sharp white teeth as she grinned. "Death is going _down. _Our next target. What do you say, partner?"

"Yeah," he said. "That sounds about right." He smiled, taking joy in her iron will. She was right, after all. They were more powerful than anyone else. Could death really take their friend from them and hope to live? He guessed they'd find out.

"We've got a lot to do," Alice admitted. "There's Leverru, and Break…you know, the last time I saw him was kind of…awful. Oh, and you really need to speak to Gil, he's going crazy without your calming presence."

"Don't forget Sharon," Oz said. He looked down into the darkness and shifted uneasily, guiltily.

"Yeah, Pandora isn't going to be happy with us. I don't think we should show our faces for a while, actually…still, we're powerful, aren't we? We can fix Leverru behind the scenes. We need to rebuild the city."

"We're not _quite_ as powerful as before, I think," Oz said thoughtfully.

"I know," Alice said, and laughed. "It's a real weight off my mind!"

She grinned fiercely, and he saw it, and matched it with one of his own. Her arms slid down his back and she took his hands.

"You were scared to die," she said softly.

Oz sighed, remembering the golden lion chasing him through the endless woods. "I'm not proud of it."

But her violet gaze was warm and full of light. "You should be," she said.

Oz started, surprised, and then he too broke into a grin.

"We've got things to do," he said. "Let's go." And he leaned towards her, the tears drying on his face, his hair rippling in the quiet stillness.

There was nowhere else to go but up. So they soared up into the light, together, and this time they were flying.

FIN

xxx

_Holy shit that took _ages.

_Anyway, I'd just like to thank you, because that was the last chapter of 'The Lion and the Unicorn'. Thanks for reading this story, for following along, whether you were a reviewer or a lurker! (If you are in fact a lurker, this would be a great time to delurk and leave a review. Anon reviews are definitely appreciated.) If you've ever left a review on this story, +1 million hugs for you! Every single comment I've received is incredibly precious to me. Thank you! _

_This is the longest piece of writing I've ever done, the first multichapter story I've properly attempted, and the longest piece of writing I've ever actually finished. It sure does have its share of flaws, and I'm definitely ready to move onto the next project now, but overall I consider this an achievement and I'm glad I wrote it. I enjoyed working on this and I hope you enjoyed reading it!_

_Special thanks to Blackcat0989 for encouraging me to go ahead with this thing and reading over most of the chapters before posting. Peace out!_


End file.
